These are now available from ACASIAN for licensing worldwide for commercial and government purposes and academic uses (licences for academic research are with minor exceptions supplied at a 50% discount).
The standard scale/resolution is 1:1M (apart from the Low Resolution Data designed for printable output, which has also been rescaled to match the 1:1m datasets).
The Land-Use Map of China (LUMC) coastlines and international boundaries are standard, although data can be supplied fitted to the Digital Chart of the World (DCW) coastline or other base maps at extra cost of A$750.
Although data are ordinarily shipped in decimal degrees using WGS84 (latitude/longitude, or what ESRI calls a 'geographic' projection), a custom Albers Equal Area projection is available for all China data at no additional charge.
All data are vailable in ARC/INFO Workstation coverages or export format (.e00), ArcView shapefiles, and MapInfo Formats. However, Chinese characters become illegible when coverages are converted into shapefiles.
PRC ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM DATA (1:1M High Resolution)
- PR China Administrative Spatio-Temporal Database - regionalizations for ADM1, ADM2, ADM3, and ADM3.1 (Urban Distrits) are included for any available 'slice in time'.
  
[PRC-ADM]
-
The ACASIAN administrative database for PR China has been up-dated on a yearly basis whenever a new yearly edition of the 'Administrative Handbook of the PRC' (Zhongguo Renmin Gongheguo Xingjengqu Huajiance) became available. A major up-grade has been made whenever a new edition of GB/T 2260 'Codes for the administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China' was published. The latest edition presently available to ACASIAN, GB/T 2260 - 2007, published on 2007-11-14, contains Administrative Guobiao Codes current to 2008-02-01, and is the basis for a recently completed major revision that is now regionalised from the newly completed PR China Administrative Spatio-Temporal Database that spans the decade from 1999 to 2008. Other available 'slices in time' that can be regionalised from it are for 1999, the 2000 census, 2002, and 2005.
This updated 2008 PR China Administrative Dataset includes all 856 urban district (qu) boundaries (polygons/regions) in all 'higher-level municipalities - 4 ADM1 'provincial level municipalities' (zhixiashi) and the 283 ADM2 'prefectural-level muncipalities (dijishi). There are in total approximately 2,860 regionalized administrative units, including the urban districts (shixiaqu), made from over 4,000 polygons including those for off shore islands, various enclaves, and temporal changes, digitised from 1:1m or larger scale sources. ADM1, ADM2, and ADM3 regionalized coverages/shapefiles are also included in all administrative datasets, and the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions are now incorporated at all levels.
All units are identified with their 2008 Guobiao codes, names in Chinese characters (GB or UTF8 encoded), and both pinyin and luomaji romanisation systems. Total 2000 census figures are included, but may pertain to multiple or merged units at later dates.
A wide range of economic, agricultural, and other demographic variables should be available for most of the years, and postal codes (see below) are available from ACASIAN.
There are always some changes to the PR China administrative system on a yearly basis. Some are merely name changes, but changes to the GB admin codes also occur whenever a new edition of GB/T 2260 is published. For instance, when an ADM2 prefecture (diqu) is promoted to an ADM2 'higher-level municipality (dijishi), which has been common during the past decade, a new set of GB codes is assigned to all of its subordinate units. Another common kind of change also involving GB code changes is when a county (xian) is promoted to a county-level municipality (xianjishi), or counties or county-level municipalities are promoted to urban districts (qu) and become members of the set of urban districts (shixiaqu) that constitute an ADM3 level unit of their ADM2 higher-level municipality or an ADM2 level unit of their ADM1 provincial-level municipality. In recent years there has also been a trend for urban districts to expand, incorporating parts of, or even entire, neighboring counties and even some neighboring ADM3-level muncipalities, which usualy also involve name and GB code changes. If such administrative changes involve name changes (but not mere boundary changes), they are documented (sometimes eliptically or even cryptically) in the yearly editions of the Xingzhengqu Huajiance, but until now the new GB admin codes could not be reliably known until there was a new edition of GB/T 2260. However, the 2009 edition of the Xingzhengqu Huajiance includes the Guobiao Admin Codes, and this should continue. Administrative boundary changes, even at the provincial level, also occur from time to time, and when they are represented in various atlases or map sources obtained by ACASIAN they are included in the spatio-temporal database described below.
Because of these continual changes, ACASIAN has now created a Spatio-Temporal (space-time composite) Administrative Database for the PRC beginning in late 1999 and extending to early 2008, currently. It will be possible, eventually, to extend it back to 1980 (or even 1949) and it will be updated whenever possible. At present, the underlying fragmented polygons can be regionalized on the basis of the 1999, 2002, and 2008 GB administrative codes. When the actual dates that boundary changes were made can be determined, they are documented at the polygon level. The 2000 census used codes that are usually (but not always) intermediate between the 1999 and 2000 GB/T 2260 admin code books, and the underlying polygons have been coded according to the official census codes from Yanji Ji Yishangqu Haomingcheng Daimayu, and when regionalized a 'slice in time' dataset matching the 2000 census is produced. It has also been possible to create a 'slice in time' matching the maps in the Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xingzheng Quhua Tuji, published in 2005 by the China Cartographic Publishing House, although the coding for it is not yet part of the spatio-temporal database, per se. However, there are only a very limited number of code and spatial changes from 2005 to GB/T 2260 - 2007.
A single user licence for any one of the four dates included in the PR China Administrative Spatio-Temporal Database (or the 2005 publication) is A$3,500. A licence for any two of the dates is A$4,500. The licence for entire spatio-temporal database spanning the ten years from 1999 to 2008 is $6,000. Please enquire for prices for subsets of provinces or individual ones.
- Other Dates for which PR China Administrative Datasets Are Available
-
- In the 1990s, ACASIAN produced static PR China Administrative Datasets for 1996 (matching GB/T - 1995, current to 01/02/1996) and 1992 (matching GB/T-2260 - 1991, current to 01/01/1992). Datasets for the 1990 and 1982 census dates were also produced. Census figures for 1990 are included in the 1992 dataset, while additional population figures for 1995 (1994 for Hubei) from published household registration sources are included with the 1996 dataset.
A single-user licence for any of the earlier static administrative datasets is A$3,000, unless ordered in conjunction with the 1999-2008 Spatio-Temporal Database, in which case discounts can be negotiated.
Individual provinces are available separately for A$250 to $750 depending on their complexity, including several variant versions for the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province for a number of dates from various and varying sources.
- Administrative Unit Regions matching the PR China 2000 Census
  
[PRC-Census]
- These data are current as of the census date of 01/11/2000 down to county-level (ADM3), including Counties (xian),
County-level Municipalities (xianjishi), and the ADM3 sets of urban districts (shixiaqu) belonging to all 'higher-level municipalities' (dijishi and zhixiashi). The individual urban districts (qu) are included in the separate, included ADM3.1 regionalization.
Including the urban districts, there are approximately 2,860 regions made from over 4,000 polygons including offshore islands and various enclaves, digitised from 1:1m or larger scale sources.
All administrative units in the 2000 census dataset are identified by official census codes from Xianji Ji Yishangqu Haomingcheng Daimayu
plus Chinese characters (GB or UNF8 encoded) and pinyin and luomaji names.
All 2000 data matching the census, regionalised at ADM1, ADM2, ADM3, and ADM3.1, A$3,500
- Administrative Unit Regions (ADM3) Matching the 1990 and the 1982 PRC Census Dates  [PRC-A3C]
- Two coverages, as of 01/07/1990 and 01/07/1982, with county-level boundaries precisely matching published census data.
Total populations for each county-level unit are included, along with Guobiao codes (both the official ones and the alternatives occasionally used by the State Statistical Bureau for census returns) and names in Chinese characters and both pinyin and luomaji.
1990 or 1982 regionalizations, A$3,000 each; both dates, A$5,000.
PRC ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL POINT DATA (Cities, Counties, and Urban Distrits)
- Major 2002 Update - Cities, County Seats, and Urban District Centers for the PRC  [PRC-C3]
- Points for year 2002 administrative capitals for counties (xian) and county-level municipalities (xianjishi), including urban district centres shixiaqu chengguan in higher-level municipalities (dijishi), including Hongkong. All points are identified with Chinese character and both pinyin and luomaji romanised names, and are coded with the Guobiao codes of their administative units as of the GB/T 2260 - 2002, which has a currency date of 2002-10-01. Year 2000 census total population figures are supplied and other variables can be supplied under certain circumstances.
A single-user licence is priced at A$1,350, or A$700 when ordered with the high-resolution 2002 Administrative System dataset, above, for a total of A$4,000. Up-grades for those who have obtained a licence for an earlier date, A$350. Generic post codes (four significant digits plus two zeros) can be included with this dataset for an additional charge of A$1,350 (unless that charge was paid for a postcode regionalisation of administrative unit data ordered at the same time).
- Cities, County Seats, and Urban District Centers for Earlier Dates
- Capitals matching any of the 2000, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1992, 1990 and 1982 boundaries, A$1,350 each ($700 additional when ordered with a matching high resolution administrative boundary dataset); all seven dates, A$4,000. Individual provinces for any of those dates, A$150 - A$350. Half price when ordered with a matching set of high resolution boundaries, above.
PRC TOWNSHIP SEAT POINTS (Including points for all Cities, Urban District Centres, County Seats, and Townships: Jiedao, Zhen and Xiang)
- PR China 2000 Census Township Points Dataset
-
The 2000 PRC census data available from the China Data Center, University of Michigan, includes figures for around 51,000 township-level units (jiedao, zhen, xiang, and their variants) plus all higher-level administrative centers. Points representing all of the township seats (xiang and zhen) as well as some accurate urban 'street committee' (jiedao) office locations and approximations for others have now been geo-referenced by ACASIAN, which allows the entire population of the PRC (apart from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions) to be analysed at the ADM4 township level. Most of the 6,000 or so urban street (jiedao) points cannot be located accurately, so they have been arbitrarily grouped within their urban district boundaries and the built up area polygons for their cities, which are included with the township point dataset. In some cases, the 'street' points can be located more accurately within the urban districts and the builtup area polygons in terms of their postcodes. The several hundred township seats that could not be found on any maps have been handled in a similar matter, being located close to their administrative unit captial.
Clients who first obtain the township census data from the CDC may obtain the township points from ACASIAN with those data joined, but depending on the amount of data involved there may be significant additional processing costs. Postcodes will be available for most of these points, apart from some of the 'streets' as described below.
A single-user licence for the full set of 50,000 township level points is priced at A$10,000. Provinces are available separately, at A$350 - A$1,350 depending on their complexity. Contact l.crissman@griffith.edu.au for more information.
- Voroni Polygons for Township Seats (Xiang and Zhen) in the PRC 2000 Census
  [TNSP-TP]
-
Thiessen Polygons are constructed in a field of points by dividing the distance between them with lines that inevitably form polygons. When constructed within a set of existing larger polygons, they are called Voroni polygons. These have been constructed within city, urban district, and county boundaries and outside urban builtup area polygons for all township seat (xiang/zhen) points, but not for 'streets' (jiedao). The results simulate rural township boundaries, and allow the CDC township level census data to be displayed in choropleth maps. When incorporated into the 2000 census administrative dataset, the resulting Voroni polygons bring the total combined price to A$15,000, including the township point dataset, above.
- Cities (shi) and All 1990 Officially Designated Towns (zhen) in the PRC  [PRC-CT)
- All cities (shi), county seats (xian chengguan), and larger rural towns (zhen) as of the 1990 census (approx. 12,500 in total, including around 10,000 of the largest rural 'towns' in China in addition to the capital city and county seat points).
All points are identified with Chinese character and pinyin (romanised) names and with Guobiao-based codes derived from GB/T 2260 - 1991, current to 1991-05-05.
Supplied with 1990 census figures for Urban-Registered Population, only.
Six-digit postal codes are available for all of these points - see below.
Cities and official towns as of 1990, $3,300. All cities and official towns for individual provinces for any date, A$250 - A$750.
PRC POST CODES
ACASIAN postcode data were produced from the Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes under copyright permission obtained from the publisher,
the Haerbin Cartographic Publishing House.
(Due to copyright restrictions, postal code data derived from the 'Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes' cannot be licenced to clients in PR China, including the Hongkong and Macao Special Administrative Regions.)
Yearly editions of the PR China Administrative Division Handbook
(Xingzhengqu Huajiance) are used for supplemental postcode information, as are other sources as they become available, such as 'The Postal Code Atlas of China', Chinese Post Office, 2005.
NOTES ON THE PR CHINA POSTCODE SYSTEM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE OFFICIAL CIVIL ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM
The subject of PR China postcodes is not entirely straightforward. When they were established, the system followed the official civil administrative system of the country only partially, departing from it at both the higher levels and at the level of the then urban districts constituting the ADM3 municipalities (shixiaqu) belonging to ADM2 municipalities (dijishi) as well as the ADM2 municipalities (also shixiaqu) within the ADM1 municipalities (zhixiashi). In this convention for designating
administrative levels of a country, ADM0 is the whole country, ADM1 are the first order divisions, ADM2 are the secondary divisions of ADM1 units, and so
forth. ACASIAN uses ADM3.1 to designate PR China urban districts (qu), which are the subsidiary components of
the ADM3 municipalities (shixiaqu) contained in ADM2 (dijishi) or
ADM1 (zhixiashi) municipalities, so regionalisation at this ADM3.1 level
displays and allows analysis of urban districts (qu) in conjunction with
counties (xian) and county-level municipalities (xianjishi). PR China’s ADM4 divisions are the rural
townships (xiang and zhen) and the urban streets (jiedao).
Essentially the postcode system divides
the larger provinces into two or more postcode divisions having two significant
digits, but the three original ADM1 municipalities (zhixiashi – Beijing,
Tianjin, and Shanghai) and other provinces with relatively small populations
comprise only one such division.
However, in some cases, these highest postcode divisions extend over
parts of multiple provinces. In
particular, the western portions of Neimenggu are joined with divisions that
are predominantly for Ningxia and part of Gansu, and smaller portions of it are
joined to divisions belonging primarily to Jilin and Heilongjiang. In the 1990s, a small, non-contiguous portion of western
Hebei belonged to the same division as Beijing, but this anomoly had been rectified by 2005. There are also some small
non-contiguous parts of divisions in Shanxi and Shaanxi. When Chongqing was separated from Sichuan
in 1997 as a forth ADM1 municipality, the existing postcode divisions were
retained, so one spans parts of both provincial level units.
Because their number is always smaller
than the ADM2 divisions in a province (diqu or dijishi) or in an
ADM1 municipality (shixiaqu or shixiaxian), the two digit postcode
divisions often contain multiple ADM2 units.
Provincial capitals and the combined inner urban districts of ADM1
municipalities (perhaps all of the ADM2 municipality, or shixiaqu, that
existed at the time the system was established) have the first two divisional
digits followed by four zeros, the first one or two of which are actually
specific to the particular complex ADM3 municipality (shixiaqu) more or
less representative of the original area of the capital city per se (in
contrast to its eponymous municipality).
However, the third digit for a division may not be specifically applied
to the whole ADM2 administrative area, as it can also extend to neighboring
ADM2 units, or parts thereof.
The closest correspondence of postcodes to
administrative units is at the ADM3 level consisting of counties (xian)
and simple county-level municipalities (xianxiashi). The administrative centers of ADM3 units,
whether county seats (zhen) or cities in the case of ADM3 municipalities
(xianjishi), have distinct postcodes with four significant digits (which can
include zeros as described in the previous paragraph) followed by two
zeros. When applied to their whole ADM3
administrative units, these were ‘generic’ postcodes, as places within
them had specific postcodes with six significant digits but the same first
four digits. This is still largely the case, but around major cities and in other places that have undergone considerable economic development, additional postcode series have now sometimes been assigned, so the fist four digits followed by two zeros assigned to an ADM3 city or county seat, or even to an ADM3.1 urban district (qu) that was once a county (xian) or ADM3 municipality (xianjishi) is now longer always generic for that administrative unit. At the ADM4 township level (xiang and zheni), multiple
neighboring townships often share the
same ‘specific’ six digit postcode, and some are even assigned uniquely to places
(or sets of places) that are not (or do not include) ADM4 administrative seats,
so the correspondence of postcodes to administrative divisions breaks down at
the ADM4 township level.
The above correspondence between generic
postcodes and administrative units at the ADM3 level does not apply to the sets
of old inner urban districts (shixiaqu, or parts thereof) of larger cities (now
capitals of ADM2 dijishi or ADM1 zhixiashi), which are divided
into significantly more numerous and hence much smaller urban postcode zones, which normally do not
share boundaries with the sets of urban districts (qu, or parts thereof)
which they are distributed across.
However, the specific zone postcodes all have the same generic first
three digits belonging to the capital city of the municipality. The urban equivalents of the rural
townships, 'streets' or street committees (jiedao), take the specific postcodes of the urban
postcode zones in which their administrative offices are located, so different
'streets' can share the same specific six digit postcode.
In the 1997 edition of the
Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes, for certain larger cities even more specific
postcodes are shown for particular urban institutions, such as universities,
government bureaux, or factories (or collections of factories). They may or may not correspond to the first
four or five digits of the urban postcode zones in which they are located, and
some of them have the same final two digits, 49 being typical.
Chinese postcodes are rarely
changed (although some were in 2002), although they can be added to (as with the institutional codes just
described, above) or when new urban postcode zones are added where there were none
before in developing parts of a city, but the field administration units also
change in one way or another at a rate of perhaps 1-2% per year, on
average. Recently, two kinds of changes
have occurred most frequently. The
first involves the promotion of ADM2 prefectures (diqu) to equivalent
ADM2 municipalities (dijishi), which can involve the promotion of remote
prefectural capitals to cities, and/or the creation of at least one urban
district (qu) at ADM3.1 level to populate a new ADM3 ‘complex’
municipality (shixiaqu) which all ADM2 municipalities must apparently
now contain. The second kind of change
is to incorporate counties (xian) or simple ADM3 municipalities (xianjishi)
as additional urban districts in the ADM3 (shixiaqu) units of their ADM2
municipalities by promoting them to urban districts (qu), again with
some possible name changes. This also occurs frequently in the four ADM1 municipalities
(zhixiashi). In some more highly
developed parts of China, the spatial distinction between the ADM2 (dijishi)
municipality and its ADM3 complex municipality (shixiaqu) is nearly gone as the
latter now incorporates all or most of the previous counties and county-level
cities in the ADM2 municipality.
Fortunately, there seem to be no consequences for postcodes in any of
these administrative promotions, as the same old generic codes (four distinct
digits plus two zeros) still seem to apply to the promoted units.
However, when the enlarged ADM3
municipalities (shixiaqu) are regionalised on the basis of the levels of
administrative units, those old generic postcodes get absorbed into the higher
order generic postcodes (three distinct digits plus three zeros) belonging to
their ADM2 (or ADM1) municipality, and will therefore be invisible when ADM3
level administrative units are displayed or analysed. However, when the administrative data are regionalised at the
ADM3.1 level to display or analyse all of the separate urban districts
belonging to the ADM3 municipality (shixiaqu) component of ADM2
municipalities, only the urban districts which were once separate ADM3 units in
their own right will have their own generic postcodes because the older inner
urban districts are divided into some larger number of the urban postcode zones
that do not align with the urban district boundaries.
The solution to this situation, with
respect to GIS spatial data for PR China postcodes, is to regionalise the
administrative data using the generic postcodes (three or four distinct digits
plus zeros), not the official administrative codes. If this is done, then those promoted urban districts that have
their own established generic postcodes (four significant digits) will be
retained as separate regions, whereas the older inner urban districts that
contain smaller urban postcode zones and therefore do not have their own
generic postocodes will be amalgamated under the higher order generic postcodes
(three significant digits) belonging to their ADM2 municipality.
PRC POSTCODE POLYGON/REGION DATABASES
- Generic Postcodes for Counties, Municipalities, and Some Urban Districts
   [PRC-PC3A]
- The postcodes in these datasets were originally taken from the first, 1988, edition of the 'Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes' (Haerbin Cartographic Publishing House), which were in a few cases subsequently updated to match the
later, 1997 edition.
More recently, further updates were made on the basis of the 2005 edition of 'The Postal Code Atlas of China' (National Postoffice) and more recent information from the yearly editions of the PR China
Administrative Division Handbooks and Internet sources. As
discussed above, generic postcodes pertain to most administrative units at the ADM2 (three significant digits plus three zeros)
and most ADM3 levels (four significant digits plus two zeros). The latter also pertain to many ADM3-1 urban districts
which have been promoted from counties or even municipalities over the past decade or more.
These generic postcode datasets have been regionalised using the lowest level of
generic postcodes, not the official administrative code system. They are available as additions to datasets
for the county-level administrative units (regions)
and for any of the dates mentioned above under
PRC ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM DATA.
Generic postcode regionalisations
are priced at A$3,300
when obtained alone,
or are provided for an additional charge of A$1,000 when
ordered together with an administrative system dataset (combined price, A$4,300).
- Internal Postal Code Zones for Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Dalian, and Thirty Other Large Cities
   [PRC-SPCZ]
- The larger cities in China, or more precisely the core areas of the larger muncipalities, are divided into a number of urban postcode zones.
Polygon data for these urban postcode zones are identifiable only by their specific postcodes. They have no names, no attributes (such as populations or socio-economic data) are available for them, and in general they do not align with administrative boundaries for urban districts (qu) or urban street committees (jiedao).
Polygon vector data for the internal urban postcode zones are based on maps in the Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes, second edition, 1997.
These polygon datasets, plus matching raster images (.jpg or .img files)scanned from the ACPC, will eventually be available for
the 100 or so largest cities in china.
Contact Lawrence Crissman for a current list of available cities.
Although ArcView 3.x shapefiles and MapInfo tab files for the postcode zones can be supplied, they will only match the Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes maps when both are registered in the appropriate UTM zone projections. However, .jpg images of the maps have been registered and rubbersheeted to match vector coverages in other projections, including decimal degrees, for use in ArcGIS (ArcMap or ArcView) 8 and 9. The registered map images are useful in relating the postcode zones to features such as city streets, etc.
Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai urban postcode zone data and registered map scans are A$750 each, Guangzhou and similar sized cities are1 A$425 each, and the cost for smaller cities is proportional to their number of postcode zones down to A$150 for places like Dalian. The registered raster images showing main streets, etc., in relation to the postcode zones for use with ArcView or MapInfo in UTM are A$500 and A$300, respectively, down to A$100 for the smaller places like Dalian. However, the map scans registered and rubber sheeted for use with ArcGIS or ArcMap (ArcView 8 or 9) are included with the urban postcode zone polygon data at no extra charge.
Contact l.crissman@griffith.edu.au for a current listing of cities for which urban postcode zone data and registered images are available, and their prices.
PR CHINA POSTCODE POINT DATASETS
ACASIAN has datasets for various collections of points coded with their postcodes, including all current cities, county seats, and urban district centers (approximately 2,800 points), plus all 10,000 or so larger towns (zhen) included in the 1990 census volumes. Work is underway to add post codes to the additional 35,000 or so township seat points (xiang and zhen) for the township 2000 census data available from the China Data Center, University of Michigan. (See 'PR China 2000 Census Township Points', above).
- Generic Postcodes for Administrative Capitals (Cities, County Seats, and Some Urban District Offices)    [PRC-PC3C]
-
The generic postcodes belonging to cities, county seats, and urban district offices (plus the urban district offices with specific postcodes) can also be represented by point data for the administrtive centres. When they are ordered at the same time as a generic postcode regionalisation of administrative unit data for any date, there is an additional price of only A$650 for the administrative capitals with their generic postcodes. Ordered separately, postcodes can be included with the PRC Administrative Capital Point Dataset, above for A$1,350.
- Postal Codes for Official Towns (Zhen) Included in the 1990 Census Returns  [PRC-PCSZ]
-
The 1990 PR China census returns inclued approximately 12,000 'urban' towns that had some number of 'urban registered population', people whose household registration status allowed them to live in officially designated urban places or who had 'urban' occupations (higher government jobs, professions, etc.) Although they vary widely in size in different parts of China, these official 'urban' towns (zhen) are the largest rural towns in their localities, and some have populations exceeding 50,000 or even 100,000. County seats are almost always such towns (except in Tibet and a few other remote places), in which case they have the same generic postcodes as their respective counties, and are included in the Generic Postcodes for Administrative Capitals dataset immediately above. The other 10,000 'urban' towns (zhen) have 'specific' postcodes (six significant digits), which are often shared with neighboring 'rural' towns (xiang).
Postcodes for the additional 10,000 official towns enumerated in the 1990 censusare A$2,650 in addition to the A$1,350 for the city and county seat points, which are only A$750 when orded with the Administrative System Dataset. So, the combined price for the 12,500 points with postcodes is A$3,400 when ordered with the administrative unit postcode regionalisations, or A$4,000 when orderd without the administrative unit postcode regions.
Post codes for the cities and towns of individual provinces, A$150 - $500 additional.
- Postal Codes for All PRC Townships (xiang and zhen) Included in the 2000 Census Returns   [PRC-PCSXZ]
- The PR China 2000 census returns include data for approximately 45,000 rural townships (xiang and zhen including the 12,000 'urban' townships (zhen) in the 1990 census. In 2000, 21,000 of the townships had the official status of zhen, and there were another 6,000 or so ADM4 urban 'street committee' units (jiedao). Although most of the latter are impossible to locate on maps readily available to foreigners, ACASIAN has geo-referenced the location of the towns that serve as the administrative seats of the additional 35,000 2000 census townships. Postcodes are being added to those points, and that work may be completed by the end of 2007.
The single user price for the township seat points with their specific postcodes will be A$15,000. At present, the specific six-digit post codes have been added to the township seat points only for provinces in southwest China, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guiyang, and Yunnan, plus Liaoning. If this dataset is ordered now, free updates will be provided when available until all provinces are supplied
- Point Locations for PR China Urban Postcode Zones and Institutional Postcodes
  [PRC-UZC]
-
As discussed above, inner cores of the larger cities in China are divided into a number of urban postcode zones that do not correspond with any of the internal administrative units of their muncipalities. In some situations, it is useful to represent these urban postcode zones with approximate centroid points that can be used with other postcode point data. In addition, in the latest 1977 edition of the Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes, some cities have additional specific postcodes for individual institutions such as universities, hospitals, and government bureaux. There can also be special postcodes typically ending in '49' that are applied to groups of factories, etc.
Centroid points are being created for all urban postcode zones along with points for the institutional postcodes, estimated to total approximately 1,500-2,000. This dataset, to be available soon, will be licenced for single-users at A$2,700.
- All PRC Postcode Points Dataset   [PRC- APC]
- In addition to the postal Codes for administrative capitals and township seats, and the center points for urban postcode zones and institutions, there are other rural places in the Atlas of Chinese Postal Codes that have specific postcodes but are not official towns (xiang and zhen).
Those additional points will eventually be added to this dattaset, which will then include point locations for all PR China postcodes.
The single-user licence for all PR China points with postcodes, including urban postcode zone points and institutional postcode points, will be A$20,000 If ordered now, free up-dates will be provided to licencees until all of the postcode point dataets are complete.
CHINA TRANSPORT ROUTES
- NEW for 2011
- PR China Spatio-Temporal Expressway Database   [PRC - EXP}
-
ACASIAN PR China expressway GIS data are now incorporated into a spatio-temporal database that is current to 2010. The database, which was created as an ARC/INFO Workstation coverage, is available in that format or as ArcView Shapefiles, and is normally distributed in Decimal Degrees (WGS84). The nominal scale is 1:1M.
The vector data representing PRC expressways was built up over many years, beginning back in the late 199s, from a wide variety of road atlases published in the PRC, the latest of which dates from April 2010. That compilation of information on the current expressway routes has then been coded to indicate the type and status of expressways that were depicted in road atlases dating from as far back as 1992. The early road atlases from the last century have maps that are quite small scale and do not contain much detail, and often show routes connecting in the central parts of cities, whereas the better atlases from more recent years have much more detail, particularly for urban regions, and often show incoming expressway (and superior highway) routes ending at ring routes around the central cities. The logic of coding the information in older atlases onto the routes shown in more recent ones is that no matter what older atlases may have depicted, expressways actually completed in the early 2000s or before will not in reality have changed their routes or locations in the intervening years down to 2010. Also, the routes shown in contemporary road atlases are often necessary to reconcile the sometimes large discrepancies among what was shown in various older atlases.
PRC road atlases up to and including those published in 2005 labelled all of the new routes that were not just normal highways as gaosu gonglu, which is translated in China as 'expressway'. The great majority of them are four-lane divided with limited access, and most are toll roads except in and around some large cities. The China Expressway Atlas (CEA), published in 2003, but based on 2001 information, was an official publication detailing the National Main Route System consisting of five north-south routes and seven east-west routes (plus some auxiliaries) that link all provincial capitals (including Lhasa) and span the country from the borders with Kazakhstan in the northwest, Russia in the northeast and Burma in the southwest. Included are causeways spanning the mouth of the Bohai Gulf between Dalian and Yentai, across Hanzhou Bay between southwestern Shanghai Shi and Ningbo, and linking the Leizhou Penninsula and Hainan Island over the Qiongzhou Straits. Not all of the National Main Routes were shown as expressways in the CEA's various maps, whether completed, under construction, or only planned. Many of them in Heilongjiang and Neimenggu, Gansu and Xinjiang, and Qinghai and Tibet, as well as other remote areas such as southwestern Hubei, were national highways that had been incorporated into the NMR System, although the implication was that some, at least, would be eventually upgraded to expressway status. Also shown in the CEA were expressways that were not part of the NMR System which had been planned, were being constructed, or had been completed by provincial authorities.
For the older sources through 2000, it was only necessary to code the status of the expressways they contained (completed or under construction), but for the CEA the type of the routes also needed to be coded in terms of whether they were part of the NMR System or not, and whether they were expressways or just highways, as well as whether they were completed, under construction, or just planned/proposed, so both type and status fields were required. As early as 2002, some of the better road atlases had begun to indicate, and even name, expressway interchanges on some routes, mostly those that had been completed some time before, judging by earlier atlases. Given the variability among atlases from around the same date in terms of whether they showed routes as completed or still under construction, for 2002 (and continuing for later years, where possible) status coding included whether or not the expressway interchanges were shown, were also named, or, later, were in addition numbered in terms of kilometers along the route, indicating increasing certainty that routes had actually been opened for traffic. By 2005, some atlases began to include route numbers for the expressways that were part of the NMR System, as well as route names in terms of originating and terminating cities.
Later, beginning in 2007, gaodengji (which I translate as 'superior highways', implying that they may have more than two lanes and may be at least partially limited access) and kuaisulu (which I translate as 'urban thoroughfares' as they are always associated with cities) began appearing in some road atlases (and sometimes for routes that had been shown as expressways in earlier atlases). Thereafter, those new categories were included in the type coding (although the use of the same map symbology for both gaodengji and kuaisulu sometimes makes it difficult if not impossible to distinguish them one from the other). By 2008, some atlases began to include expressway and superior highway route numbers based on an entirely new national system that includes all such routes without reference to which level of government was responsible for planning and constructing them. Route names have also become more common and it has been necessary to differentiate them in terms of whether the names apply to routes that cross the country, are mainly used within provinces, or are of only local significance, as all three can be found at different places on the same route.
The ACASIAN PR China Expressway Spatio-Temporal Database has now been coded using road atlases from 1992, 1993, 1998, 2000 (three), the CEA, 2005 (three) and 2010 (three). Coding from one 2002, one 2003 and one 2007 atlas will be completed in the near future, and 2011 will be added as time and resources permit.
A single user licence for the PR China Expressway Spatio-Temporal database for any one recent year (2007, 2010, or 2011) is A$3,000. Additional coding for those recent years and 2005 (or others) are A$1,000 each. Coding for the years 2003, 2002 and 2000, and from the CEA, are an additional A$750 each. Coding for 2000, 1998, and 1993 and 1992 combined are an additional A$500 each.
Enquire (l.crissman@griffith.edu.au) about licence prices for particular provinces or multiple users.
- Road Transport Routes of China  [PRC-RDS]
- Apart from the expressways contained in the new dataset, above, all routes connecting cities and most of the nearly 12,000 officially designated towns as of the 1990 census are included, distinguished in terms of national and provincial highways, and local roads, paved and unpaved. Route numbers are included for National Highways, only. National and Provincial Highways have now been updated using 2007 through 2010 sources. Individual provinces available separately.
All data, A$6,500; Individual provinces, A$350 - A$1,350. National Highways, only, A$2,000, National and Provincial Highways, A$4,000.
The major 2009 update of the Expressway dataset will also update National and Provincial Highway data as required, and route numbers for Provincial Highways will be added.
- Railroad Routes of China  [PRC-RLS]
- Complete railroad system of China according to circa 1997-98 sources were originally digitised, but these data have now been updated using new mid-2000s sources. Single and double tracks are distinguished along with narrow gauge, and electrified lines are indentified. Railroad jurisdictions are also attributed. Individual provinces available separately.
All data, A$1,500; Individual provinces, A$150 - A$500.
The 2009 Road Transposrt updates will also extend to updating the rail transport routes.
- Navigable Waterways of China  [PRC-NWW]
- Coded from a number of different sources which are identified on the data. Includes rivers, canals, and lakes. Can be supplied based on LUMC hydrography data or the low resolution rivers and lakes dataset, below. All data, A$1,000; separate regions or provinces proportional
- Commercial Airports and Seaports of China  [PRC-ASP]
- Compiled from official sources in order to complete the transport databases for China. Both sets, A$500; A$250 each.
TAIWAN REGION SPATIAL DATA
- Taiwan Region Municipalities and Counties with Their Capitals and Other Towns, Post Codes, and Road and Rail Transport Routes  [TW-ALL]
- Separate data sets for the Taiwan Region similar to those listed above for the PRC. Any data themes available separately. All data, A$750; portions proportional
CHINA LOW RESOLUTION DATA SETS
Although scaled to 1:1M, these data were either generalised from the high resolution data, described above, or were derived from smaller scale materials in order to create digital cartography that can be used to produce graphical output suitable for publication-sized hard copy. For instance, the coast line depicts only major features, not all small islands that thicken the coastline significantly when printed out at normal page size. Academic discounts of 25%, only, apply to any China Low Resolution Data Sets.
- 1998 County and County-Level Municipalities  [PRC-SA3]
- Available with or without identification of the new Provincial Municipality of Chongqing created in 1997, otherwise current to the end of 1998. Taiwan Region not included, except as outline. Other available standard dates are 31/12/1997, 01/02/1996, 01/01/1992, and the 1990 census. Internal urban districts and small outlying polygons (feiqu) not included. Supplied with official Guobiao administrative codes from GB/T 2260 - 1995, names in both Pinyin and Chinese characters and end of 1995 populations from Provincial Statistical Yearbooks (end of 1994 for Hubei). Additional dates and attributes are available at extra cost.
All end of 1998 data, A$1,350 (A$1,000 academic price). No provinces available separately.
- 1998 Cities and County Seats  [PRC-SAC3]
- Available in conjunction with the low resolution 1998 county-level boundary set, above, at a special combined price. A$2,000 (A$1,500 academic price).
- Major Rivers and Lakes, the Grand Canal and the Great Wall,
with Integrated Provincial Boundaries and Capital Cities  [PRC-SHP]
- Available with or without the new Provincial Municipality of Chongqing created in 1997. Names of major rivers and lakes, as well as the provinces and their capitals are provided in Chinese characters and pinyin. Mongolian rivers and those that flow southwards out of China are also included.
A$750
A similar set of river data for mainland South East Asia is also available (see below).
- Drainage Basin Demarcations for Significant Rivers and Major Tributaries[PRC-DBS]
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Coded with 6 digit numbers for basins, subbasins and some sub-subbasins. Basin, subbasin, and sub-subbasin divides were distinguished from the
hydrography on the 1:1,000,000 Land-use Map of China, not DEM data.
Similar in resolution to the Low Resolution Data Sets, above, so normally supplied fitted to the simplified coastline, but can also be supplied fitted to the LUMC or other base maps such as the DCW.
Drainage basins alone, A$750.
Supplied with the Major Rivers and Lakes plus the Grand Canal, as above, or with LUMC main streams. A$1,350.
CHINA PHYSIOGRAPHY
- Contours in meters for any intervals or altitudes  [PRC-CON]
- Generated from the USGS 30 Arc Second DEM data, contain unedited anomalies.
Can be supplied with DCW or other base map
coastlines/international boundaries. A$300 per contour level, quantity discounts
for multiple levels.
- Registered DEM images  [PRC-DEM]
- Images prepared with set elevation breaks represented with color variations, available in an Albers projection or decimal degrees (WGS84) and registered for use with ARC/INFO, ArcView, and MapInfo, etc. Either DCW or LUMC international boundaries used for clipping. All China, A$250, Provinces and special areas/smanll regions, A$100.
LAND-USE MAP OF CHINA SPATIAL DATA BASES - 1:1M
These datasets were produced under a copyright agreement with the Institute of
Geography and the Science Press, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. They are now available for commercial purposes as well as academic use and collaboration (the latter is subject to negotiations with the Institute of Geography, CAS).
Academic and other discounts are not available for these LUMC datasets, which are in effect licenced to organisations or research projects on a multiple user basis. Licence costs for large organisations are negotiable.
Most of the information on the 64 1:1,000,000 sheets of the 'Land-use Map of China', produced under the general editorship of Professor Wu Chuan-jun and published by the Science Press in 1990 are available, plus additional ACASIAN assigned drainage basin codes and navigable waterway indentifications.
All data are vailable in ARC/INFO Workstation coverages and export files, ArcView shapefiles, and MapInfo formats.
- Land-use Polygons Covering All of China  [CH-LUMC]
- Approximately 165,000 in ten major categories with a total of 55
sub-categories. Coastlines and international boundaries not DCW compatible. Partial coverages for specific areas or individual provinces can be supplied.
All data, A$13,000; provinces A$300 to A$1,500.
- Dense Hydrography for All China  [CH-HYLP]
- Approximately 100 Megabytes of data in ARC/INFO coverages (more in most other GIS software formats), includes all
hydrodlogical features on the LUMC including glaciers and marshes, etc. Lines and polygons are coded for display purposes.
Not DCW compatible, but far, far more detailed.
Partial coverages for specific areas or individual provinces can be supplied.
All data, A$13,000; provinces A$300 to A$1,500.
- Additional Hydrography Coding for Navigable Waterways  [CH-HYLP_N]
- Only supplied in conjunction with the 'Dense Hydrography' dataset above, these codes identify the navigable waterways of China as shown in a variety of sources and and allow them to be displayed either alone or in contrast to all of the other
waterways and other hydrographic features. All navigation code fields, A$750; portions proportional.
- Additional Hydrography Coding for Drainage Basins  [CH-HYLP_D]
- Only supplied in conjunction with the 'Dense Hydrography' dataset above, these codes distinguish the drainage basins identified on the map on page 4 of 'The Population Atlas of China' (Oxford University Press, 1987) plus dozens and dozens more subbasins and some sub-subbasins with 6 digit codes and also coded for display purposes. The mainstreams in each basin, subbasin and sub-subbasin are also identified and coded for display.
The 'Drainage Basin Demarcations for Significant Rivers and Major Tributaries' [PRC-DBS] dataset, described above under China Low Resoultion Data Sets, is included with these codes. All drainage basin code fields, A$1,350; portions proportional.
- Additional Hydrography Coding for Drainage Topology  [CH-HYLP_T]
- Only supplied in conjunction with the 'Dense Hydrography' dataset above, these codes identify the the topology of drainage systems in terms of the relations of tributaries to mainstreams within drainage basins.
All topologic code fields, A$5,000;
portions proportional.
- Cities and towns, roads and railroads, and county-level administrative
divisions (ADM3, circa 1980)  [CH-CTTR]
- Partial coverages for specific areas or individual provinces are available.
All data, A$6,500; portions proportional plus 10%.
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SPATIAL DATA FOR OTHER ASIAN AND NEAR EASTERN COUNTRIES
ACASIAN Research GIS Databases - 1:1M
These are now available for licensing for commercial purposes and academic use from ACASIAN.
All of the administrative boundary data sets listed below use Digital Chart of the World international boundaries and coastlines (apart from Bangladesh.
All data are available in ARC/INFO Workstation coverages and export files, ArcView shapefiles, and MapInfo formats. Unless otherwise requested, at extra cost, all data are supplied unprojected in decimal degrees of latitude/longitude, (ESRI's 'geographic' projection).
- Major Southeast Asian Rivers (Low Resolution)  [SEA-RI]
- All of the principal rivers of mainland Southeast Asia (Irrawaddy, Salween, Chao Phraya, Mekong, and the Red River of northern Vietnam), with some of their major tributaries. Those that rise in China are continuations of the data in the 'Major Rivers and Lakes, .....' data set listed above. Although scaled to 1:1m, these data were derived from smaller scale materials in order to create digital cartography that can be used to produce graphical output suitable for puplication-sized hard copy. All data, A$200
- Bangladesh  [BD-A3]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals as of the 2001 census for ADM1 (Divisions - 6), ADM2 (Districts, or Zilla), and ADM3 (Municipalities and Upazila/Thana), fitted to DCW international boundaries and some coastline, but more recent coastlines based on Survey of Bangladesh maps are also incorporated. Population figures from the Bangladesh 2001 census are included.
ADM1 and ADM2 A$750; all data including ADM3 boundaries and seats A$2,000.
Burma, see Myanmar  [MY-A3]
- Bhutan  [BH-A1]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals as of 2001 for the 20 Dzongkhags, plus their (probably obsolete) zonal groupings, fitted to DCW international boundaries.
No population figures presently available.
A$250.
Cambodia  [CA-A1], $750 see Indochina
- India
- ACASIAN has only produced a limited amount of ADM1 and ADM2 data for Northeast India bordering Bhutan, China, and Myanmar.
- Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam)  [IC-A1]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for provinces (ADM1), fitted
to DCW, with recent population figures. Individual countries
available separately.
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodian district boundaries (ADM2) and
capitals have now been updated based on recent map sources. Produced by ACASIAN and The Flinders University of
South Australia. All ADM1 data, A$2,000.
Separately: Cambodia A$750; Laos, A$500; Vietnam, A$1,000.
- Indonesia  [IN-A3]
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Official Badan Pusat Statistic spatial data for 2000 are no longer available through ACASIAN. Contact Madame Bana Bodri (bana@mailhost.bps.go.id) for information on prices and availability. BPS have spatial data matching the 2000 census that can be regionalised using codes for ADM1 (Propinsi), ADM2 (Kabupaten/Kodya), ADM3 (Kecamatan), and ADM4 (Desa) levels - there are over 70,000 polygons altogether. Population data from the 2000 census should also be available from BPS.
ACASIAN has recently produced low-resolution ADM1 (provincial-level) boundary data suitable for producing legible maps on A4 and smaller sheets. High resolution ADM1 regions incorporating 1:1M World Vector Shorelines are also available, as are ADM1&2 administrative captital point data. Please enquire.
- Japan
- In the past, ACASIAN did not produce spatial data for contemporary Japan, as academic and commercial sources existed. Recently, a client requested transport datasets at 1:1m. Consequently, ACASIAN can now supply uncoded data for expressways and national and provincial highways, and routes for bullet train routes and normal railroads. Attributes such as route names and numbers can be added in a few days. Japan coded road transport data, A$750; rail transport data, A$250.
- North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)  [NK-A2]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for municipalities and provinces (ADM1) and for their subdivisions, municipalities and districts (ADM2), fitted to the DCW. No population figures are available. Both levels, $1,350.
Township and commune ADM3 administrative seat point locations also availble for A$750.
Major roads (two levels) are A$750, while addtional local roads are A$1,350. Railroads, including stations and their names are A$750. All North Korea Datasets, A$4,000.
- South Korea (Republic of Korea)  [KO-A2]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for ADM1 and ADM2, plus ADM2.1 urban districts for the five municipalities have been recently updated. Population data from the 2000 census is included. Fitted to DCW shorelines, modified to include recent land reclamation work. Postcodes are now available for ADM2 units, plus the ADM2.1 urban districtrs. Transport datasets, including expressways and national and provincial highways, and high-speed and regualar railroads are now available.
Administrative regions and captials, A$1,500. With postcodes, A$2,000. Expressways and Highways, A$1,000;All railroad data, $500. All South Korea datasets, A$3,000,
Laos, or Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic)  [LA-A2], A$500 see Indochina
- Malaysia  [MA-A3]
- Administrative boundaries, down to Mukim level (ADM3), except for Sabah (ADM2, only),
with 1991 population figures. Produced by the University of
Western Australia, now fitted to DCW coastlines by ACASIAN. ADM1 and ADM2 A$750; all data A$2,000.
- New Malaysia datasets, with ADM1 & 2 administrative regions and capitals, including the new national capital region, A$1000.
- Mongolia  [MO-A2]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for ADM1 and ADM2, plus a few other rural towns. Fitted to DCW or LUMC China border - please specify. No population figures presently available. Low-resolution hydrography and transport (national highways and railroad) data now available.
Administrative data, A$1,350. Transport data, A$500. Hydrogaphy, A$500. All Mongolia data, A$2,000.
- Myanmar (Burma)  [MY-A3]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals at Division and State (ADM1), District (ADM2), and Township (ADM3) levels as of the mid-1990s, fitted to DCW, with recent population estimates for Divisions and States, Districts, and Townships. ADM1 and ADM2 A$750; all data A$1,500.
- Nepal  [NE=A333]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for ADM1 Regions, ADM2 Zones and ADM3 Districts as of the 2001 census, fitted to DCW international boundaries. Population figures from the 2001 census are supplied.
All data A$750.
- Pakistan  [PA-A2]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for provinces and federally administered areas, plus Azad Kashmir (ADM1), divisions (ADM2), and districts and agencies, etc. (ADM3), as of the 1998 census,
fitted to DCW coastline and international boundaries, including the 'Line of Control' with India. 1998 census population figures supplied.
Provinces available separately. All Data
A$1,500; Provinces A$350 each.
- Sri Lanka  [SL-A1]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for ADM1 and ADM2, fitted to DCW. Admin data and population figures available for 1971, 1981, and 2001.
A$750.
- The Philippines  [PH-A2]
- Administrative boundaries, down to Municipality level
(ADM3).
Fitted to DCW coastlines, with 1990 population figures for urban, gender, and age. Produced by
James Cook University and ACASIAN. Regions and Provinces (ADM1 and ADM2)
A$750; Municipalities (ADM3) for all but southern Mindanao at present (and they can be completed quickly), A$2,000
The Regions of the Philippines have now been regionalised from updated provincial polygon data. Although not offical administrative units, and therefore not having capitals, these 13 Regions are used for government statistics and other purposes, and are gaining currency for identifying parts of the country. Southern Mindanao provinces have now been updated, and provincial capitals for the whole country are now available. All new Philippine datasets, A$1,000.
- Thailand  [TH-A1]
- Administrative Boundaries and capitals for provinces (ADM1) have been updated and improved, fitted
to DCW coastline, with mid-1990s population figures. District boundaries (ADM2)
and capitals are in preparation, please enquire. ADM1 dataset A$1000.
- Turkey  [TU-A2Z]
- Administrative boundaries and capitals for Il (ADM1) and Ilce (ADM2),
plus other towns, fitted to DCW as possible. These data are current to 1980, only, and have the contemporaneous population figures.
A$750.
Vietnam  [VN-A1]
- Updated and improved 2008 ADM1 Provinces and capitals now available (ADM2 Districts in preparation). A$1,000.> See also Indochina