Over 1.5 gigabytes of spatially referenced data at 1:1,000,000 scale have been assembled to support the regional analysis of China. The analysis includes the development of regional city systems, core-periphery zones, and urban-rural continuum indicies. Current work on all of mainland China focuses on two epochs: 1982-85 and 1990 (see China GIS Data Plan).  A separate project has developed more detailed spatial data for Shandong Province (1:250,000 scale).  Many of the data sets listed here were made available to this project by other organizations, most notably the Australian Centre of the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN) at Griffiths University, Australia.  Other sources include the Consortium for International Earth Sciences Information Network (CIESIN), the Digital Chart of the World (DCW), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).  Further distrubution of such data sets is not available through UC Davis.

More detailed metadata is available for coverages highlighted below.

 

Hierarchical Regional Space
File		Title		Description		Source		Status
rcs		Macroregions and Regional City Systems of China, 1990		Polygons for regional city systems (1:1m); Region subclasses define Macroregional systems and subsystems		UCD		Completed July 1999.
rcs8285		Macroregions and Regional City Systems of China, 1982-85		Polygons for regional cities (1:1m)		UCD		Offline.
cpz		Core-Periphery Zoning of China Proper, 1990		Concentric zones		UCD		Completed August 1999.
r4rcszon		Regional City Systems and their Internal Structures, China's Upper Yangzi Region		Polygons for regional cities and internal towns.		UCD		Offline; draft completed 1996.

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Political Boundaries
File		Title		Description		Source		Status
china-a		Boundaries of provincial, prefectural, and county-level units of China, 1982-1990		County polygons coded by 1982 and 1990 unit codes for use with ChinaA, ChinaZ, and cross-time comparisons. Regional subclasses define MQ, MC, and crosss-time units as well as provinces.		Original boundaries by ACASIAN; revisions, coding and region topology by UCD.		Completed 10/97. Expect to revise again cf. ACASIAN's PONET96.
hongkong		Boundaries of Hong Kong District Board districts and New Towns, 1990		District polygons coded by name and ChinaA unit IDs.		UCD		Completed 6/98. Data available here.
chprov		Provincial boundaries of China		Low-resolution (1:4m) borders of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities		ACASIAN
worldx		Index to DCW tiles		DCW tile boundaries plus International boundaries and coastline (1:25m).		DCW

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Central Places
File		Title		Description		Source		Status
CP series and CPQU		Central Places of China (30 provincial coverages plus CPQU supplemental coverage)		Point locations of cities and towns linked to ChinaT data file. (.PAT gives both ACASIAN and ChinaT ID numbers; .CTC and CHINAT.DAT files give additional data.)		CP series points georeferenced by ACASIAN, linked to ChinaT data file by UCD. Missing points (including qu centers) georeferenced by UCD.		Also stored as all-China coverages CP-ALL, with subsets of Regional Cities (RegCity) and key towns for each county (MCCP), etc.
RegCity		Regional Cities of China, 1990		Point locations of regional cities linked to ChinaT data file		Selected from ACASIAN and UCD sources.		Complete
ChinaT		Major Central Places of China, 1990		Point locations of cities linked to ChinaT data file		UCD		See CP series files for additional lower-order places
chcaps		Capital Cities of China		Point locations of provincial capitals		ACASIAN
urban		Urbanized areas of Asia		"Urbanized" land use polygons for China and adjacent East and Central Asia		CIESIN

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Hydrography
File		Title		Description		Source		Status
chrivers		Navigable Rivers of China		Waterways indicated as navigable on 1:4m or 1:6m transportation maps; low-resolution not suitable for 1:1m maps.		ACASIAN		Most complete navigability attributes of all Hydrography coverages
HYLP series		Hydrography Lines and Polygons (40 tiles, each 6x4 degrees)		Rivers and Lakes suitable for 1:1m maps, digitized from Land Use Map of China.		Linework from ACASIAN; some attributes including navigability recomputed by UCD.		Note: navigable rivers and lakes extracted to all-China Navnet and Navpoly coverages (see below).
polakes		Major Lakes of China		Generalized polygons, topologically correct from 1:1m county boundaries.		UCD
rivers and riv-add		Hydrography Lines and Polygons		Rivers and Lakes suitable for 1:1m maps. Less detail than HYLP series.		Rivers: DCW Riv-add: UCD (added estuarine segments to meet China-A coastline)
r4rivers		Rivers of the Upper Yangzi Basin		HYLP rivers coded to five classes (indepenent of chrivers)		UCD
coastline		Coastline of China		1:1m definitive coastline used in China-A political boundaries and in Navnet		ACASIAN and DCW
navnet		Navigable rivers of China		River lines from the HYLP series coded as to their navigability		Lines: ACASIAN; coding: UCD		completed June 1998
navpoly		Navigable lakes of China		Water polygons from the HYLP series coded as to their navigability		Lines: ACASIAN; coding and selection: UCD		completed June 1998

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Physiography
File		Title		Description		Source		Status
drainage		Major Drainage Basins of China		Watershed boundaries of major river systems.  Defined by tracing around heads of streams, without reference to DEM.		ACASIAN
physio		Major Physiographic Regions of China		10 physiographic regions, defined primarily by major watershed boundaries		UCD		To be edited with reference to drainage coverage.
Chinadem		Digital Elevation Model of China		30 arc-second grid of elevation values		Source DEMs from USGS GTOPO30; assembled by UCD		Very large file; stored offline
Chinaslope		China Slope grid		Slope values based on chinadem		UCD		Very large file; can be recomputed from chinadem
Chinahill		China Hillshade grid		Shaded relief based on chinadem		UCD		Very large file; can be recomputed from chinadem

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Transportation Network
File		Title		Description	Source	Status
Transnet		Transportation Network, China 1990		Merged coverage of arcs from roads-pr (excluding superhighways), rails-pr, and hylp (navigable rivers only). Nodes representing central places are coded with T1 (from CPxx).	UCD selected and edited from ACASIAN sources
roads		Major Roads of China		Selected inter-county roadways, circa 1990.	ACASIAN
rroads		Major Railroads of China		Selected inter-county railroad lines, circa 1990.	ACASIAN
Roads-pr series		Roads of China (30 provincial coverages)		Detailed roadways coded by status (from "superhighway" to "unpaved local road"). Circa mid-1990s.	ACASIAN
Rails-pr series		Railroads of China (30 provincial coverages)		Detailed railroads, circa mid-1990s.	ACASIAN

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Cartographic Elements
File		Title		Description	Source	Status
ctix		China Graticule (Albers projection, meters)		Graticule of precise latitudes and longitudes, with Tics and 5-digit IDs at intersections.	UCD	Complete
mtix		China Graticule (Albers projection, kilometers)		Graticule of precise latitudes and longitudes, with Tics and 5-digit IDs at intersections.	UCD	Complete
arrow		Vertical Arrow			UCD
mapscale		200km scale bar			UCD
zlegend		Segmented vertical arrow and key boxes		Key box coverage for use with zlegend.aml	UCD