The Administrative Map of the People's Republic of China was jointly made by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping on a scale of 1/4,000,000 and will be published by the China Cartographic Publishing House.

Luo Pingfei, vice-minister of civil affairs, said the provincial boundaries of the new map were drawn in line with some 3,104 demarcation agreements and their attached drawings which have been recognized by bordering provinces and approved by the State Council, China's cabinet.

On past maps, zig-zag lines marking the country's provincial borders were not official since there were no legal instruments for cartographers to refer to when such boundaries were being drawn.

"Besides, no boundary disputes can be solved using these nominal boundaries as references," said Bai Bo, president of the publishing house.

In May 1984, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping jointly issued, with the approval of the State Council, an explanatory drawing of the zig-zag boundaries in the maps.

But disputes stemming from the natural resources in the bordering lands at issue kept popping up.

To deal with the problem, China began an internal boundary demarcation in 1996 and completed survey of 62,000-kilometer provincial borders and 416,000-kilometer inter-county boundaries in May this year, creating a sound reference for the drawing of legal internal boundaries.

Wang Chunfeng, deputy director of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, said the new map also provides a cartographic rule which can standardize the boundary drawings of maps, especially those appearing in books, magazines, newspapers, commercial advertisements and posters.

Wang said the map also fixed some water systems, roads and landforms according to their latest situations.

According to Luo, people can easily spot the changes in boundary lines though the scale is rather small.

He said a set of explanatory drawings and a map with a larger scale will be issued soon to help people gain a better understanding of the changes.

(People?s Daily December 25, 2002)