Introduction to the National Atlas of China

The article describes the 1934 Zhonghua Minguo Xin Ditu, issued to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Shenbao, as a 53-map atlas with seven general maps, forty-four regional maps, and a place-name index containing more than 36,200 entries. Its regional sheets distinguish human-geographic maps emphasizing settlements, transport routes, towns, and county boundaries from physical maps centered on relief and drainage; a graticule-based sheet system reduces duplication and allows adjacent maps to be joined. The reviewer praises its use of the latest available sources, including large-scale topographic surveys, and judges its copperplate engraving and hypsometric coloring exceptionally refined for its time. The atlas reportedly received strong scholarly acclaim at home and abroad, contributed positively to science and education in Republican-era China, and later provided the basis for the repeatedly reprinted Zhongguo Fensheng Tuji.