Brief Review of the National General Atlas: Congratulations on the publication of the General Atlas of the People's Republic of China

Summary

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.