Introduction to the National Economic Atlas of China and Its Electronic Edition

Liu Yue introduces the National Economic Atlas of the People’s Republic of China, its 1994 English edition, The National Economic Atlas of China, and its electronic edition. National-atlas compilation entered the national science plan in 1956, was interrupted during the Cultural Revolution and received renewed State Council approval in 1981. The economic-atlas project began in March 1987, led by the State Planning Commission and edited by the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Nearly 30 institutions and over 100 specialists worked for six years; China Cartographic Publishing House published the Chinese edition in 1993, and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong) published the English edition in 1994. The project received the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ sole special science-and-technology progress award for 1995. The print atlas contains 265 maps in ten groups and 250,000 Chinese characters of explanatory text, covering resources, population, economic sectors and provincial economies. Liu emphasizes its treatment of sectoral scale, structure, development, spatial distributions, regional differences and interdependencies. Compilation combined synthesis and analysis through content selection, indicator classification and grading, and mapping units at several levels. The article reports favorable assessments by the appraisal committee and ICA president D. R. F. Taylor, particularly of its coverage and cartographic methods. The electronic atlas used updated data and independently developed EA-ward software, taking one year and two months from software development to completion. Its editorial committee praised its visualization, ease of use and comparative analysis, judging it world-leading. The committee proposed audience-specific editions and biennial updates. Liu also reports favorable responses to its demonstration at the 1995 ICA meeting in Barcelona.