胡毓钜 · 1997
Hu Yuju reviews the National General Atlas of the People’s Republic of China, published by China Cartographic Publishing House in 1995 as the first volume of the national atlas series. He traces the project to the national science development plan and the start of compilation in 1958. Work was disrupted during the Cultural Revolution; the completed provincial maps appeared separately in 1969, while the general atlas reached publication nearly thirty years late. The atlas contains 180 pages of introductory, regional and provincial maps, with enlarged-area and city maps, followed by a 99-page place-name index. Hu praises its binding, provincial map units pairing full provincial maps with capital-city or enlarged maps, clear typography and harmonious colors despite dense information, and detailed sea charts and drainage mapping. He highlights projections selected for each map’s location, shape, extent and subject, with projection centers or standard parallels specified. He attributes outdated content, especially in city maps, to compilation and production delays amid rapid urban change, and briefly advocates computer cartography to improve currency. He judges the atlas a new high point in China’s atlas compilation theory and technique.
吴忠性 · 1997
This paper is an academic review of the National Ordinary Atlas of the People's Republic of China. The author traces the compilation background and historical origins of the atlas, noting its significant advancement over the 1930s Shenbao Atlas, exemplifying the developmental principle of "surpassing the master." The review highlights the atlas's merits in content richness, structural clarity, and printing quality, while also discussing the evolution of cartographic techniques from manual work to automation, multimedia, and expert systems, with an outlook on the full automation of future atlases.
高俊 · 1997
Gao Jun celebrates the 1995 publication of the National General Atlas of the People’s Republic of China as the first volume of the national-atlas series and an achievement embodying generations of surveying and mapping work. He recalls that the national-atlas project was proposed in 1958 and took more than thirty years to reach publication amid cultural and scientific upheaval. Most of the article explains how maps support spatial cognition: forming mental images, comparing distributions, identifying spatial relationships, combining statistics with location and correcting geographical misconceptions. Gao discusses how atlases integrate space and time, use nested scales and thematic maps to deepen understanding, and teach readers to interpret cartographic representations; he specifically praises the General Atlas’s design for following principles of visual perception. Addressing databases, electronic atlases, GIS and virtual reality, he recognizes technological advances and challenges while arguing that national and scholarly atlases retain value as records of scientific knowledge and accessible tools for visualizing spatial data. He also expects national-atlas production to provide organized information for national infrastructure and train personnel for computerized cartography.
