All of China's landmarks -- more than 600 cities, more than 2,000 counties and countless rivers and mountains -- now exist not only in real world, but also digitally, inside a computer. And the computerized "Digital China" is becoming more and more like the real thing.
"Digital China," one of the computer programs listed in China's10th Five-year Plan, is designed to help the country's leaders make major decisions and help local officials prevent natural disasters and plan cities, explained Wu Wenzhong, an official with he State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM), in an interview with Xinhua.
Wu said his bureau has already created electronic maps of the country in the proportions of 1: 4 million, 1: 1 million and 1: 250,000. An electronic map in the proportion of 1: 50,000 will be finished next year.
"Electronic maps of the country are only the basic framework of’ Digital China,'" he said. "It needs to be enriched with other information as much as possible, such as demographic information and ecological information."
If provinces and cities are willing to make more detailed electronic maps or even 3-dimensional maps, they should do some of the work themselves, Wu said. The city of Weihai, east China's Shandong Province, has taken the lead.
Li Chengming, research fellow with the China Survey Research Institute, showed Xinhua reporters a 3D electronic map in the proportion of 1:500 of Weihai City.
The map not only shows all the city's buildings, mountains, rivers and sea coasts, but also every one of its trees and street lights. Entering the name of one of the city's residential communities gives a display of resident's personal information, including his/her birthday, state ID number and place of birth.
"The information is very helpful for policemen to safeguard social security and track down critical suspects," Li said.
The 3D map can tell which areas are the city's population-intensive parts and how many hospitals, kindergartens and shopping malls should be built there. New buildings can be added to the map before they are built to see if they block other building's sunlight.
Thirty-seven computer professionals took three months to complete the 3D map of Weihai, at a cost of 2.6 million yuan (US$314,142). Zhejiang, Suzhou, Wenzhou and Yiwu have followed suit and now have their own 3D maps.
When all China's counties, cities and provinces have their own 3D maps as detailed as the one of Weihai City, China will have been fully digitalized, Wu said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2004)
