Introduction to the National Economic Atlas of China

Summary

The National Economic Atlas of China, introduced by ICA President D.R.F. Taylor, is the most comprehensive and detailed thematic atlas reflecting China's socio-economic landscape to date. Using counties and cities as basic geographic units, the atlas employs 265 maps and over 500 socio-economic variables to systematically depict China's rapid economic growth and uneven regional development (e.g., the leading eastern and southern provinces) during the reform era (1978–1990). Data are primarily drawn from the 1985–1986 National Industrial Census and the 1982 and 1990 population censuses, with rigorously verified quality and low overall error rates. The atlas was produced using computer cartography and supplemented by over 200,000 Chinese characters of explanatory text to update and contextualize the data. It stands as a significant milestone of China's economic reform achievements and offers a unique contribution to understanding the complex spatial distribution and development processes of China's socio-economy.