Inheritance and Development, Innovation through Renewal: Congratulations on the Publication of the National General Atlas of the People's Republic of China

Summary

The National Atlas of the People's Republic of China (General Atlas) has been officially published, a long-awaited event in China's cartographic community. As the first volume of the national atlas series, it was compiled by over a hundred cartographers from multiple institutions and comprehensively presents China's geographic features and regional characteristics. The atlas adopts the latest field-survey data, 1:1,000,000 topographic maps, and satellite imagery, and draws on the national place-name survey results, ensuring authority and currency. Its compilation emphasizes both inheritance and innovation: the themes are complete and systematic, covering general maps, regional maps, provincial maps, sea-area maps, and city maps; the content is detailed and up-to-date, with information updated to the end of 1991; the design is novel, using coloured relief shading for sea areas for the first time, improving hypsometric tinting for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and adopting a three-step colour scheme based on China's three major topographic steps. Cartographers believe that this atlas breaks through traditional mapping modes, organically integrates scientific, ideological, practical and artistic values, and reaches an internationally advanced level. It is a historic contribution to national cartography and will play an important role in economic construction, national defence, scientific research and education.