▲ Map Society launched a vertical map of China, and the South China Sea Islands appeared in the same proportion as the mainland for the first time.
Is the territory of China wide from east to west or long from north to south? People who are used to reading horizontal maps will easily choose a wider one, but the correct answer is actually that the north and south are longer.
Recently, the National Map Publishing House published the 20 13 new version of "Full Map of People's Republic of China (PRC) (People's Republic of China (PRC))", which showed the complete map of China in vertical form. For the first time, the South China Sea Islands and the mainland are displayed on the map at the same scale, which shows the land and sea territory of China more truly and intuitively. Fixed the disadvantages of small land and light sea in horizontal map. Distinguished professor Lu Rude of Dalian Naval Academy interprets the changes and significance of vertical drawings.
The horizontal map has the disadvantage of "paying more attention to the land than the sea"
The horizontal map of China hanging all over the country now starts from the Chinese territory established by the Qing government's "demarcation", extends the Chinese territory to Zengmu shoal, and establishes the whole land and sea, which is a great progress in the history of Chinese territory.
However, the horizontal map of China lists the marine territory as a scaled-down attached map, thus separating the land territory from the marine territory into a main map and an attached map, which easily leads to three obvious misunderstandings: first, the territory of China is long in the east and west, and short in the north and south; Second, due to the different scales adopted, the marine territory has been doubled, making it appear that the land is large and the ocean is small; Third, it will mislead the territorial consciousness of "attaching importance to the land but neglecting the sea", which is also one of the reasons why the national marine consciousness is weak. Therefore, over the years, people from all walks of life have been making suggestions to redraw the vertical map of China with the same scale to show the land and sea map of China completely.
Last year, in the "Trinity" survey conducted by the State Bureau of Surveying, Mapping and Geographic Information in conjunction with Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and other ministries 12, most of the respondents thought that "the territory of China is wider from east to west, and it is no longer long from north to south". This attracted the attention of relevant departments and began to draw a new vertical map of China.
The vertical map shows the South China Sea Islands in all directions.
In the vertical map of China, the picture of "South China Sea Islands", which was once the thumbnail in the lower right corner of the horizontal map of China, was completely displayed this time, connecting the South China Sea Islands with the mainland. On the map, you can clearly see the main islands and reefs of the South China Sea Islands and their geographical relationship with neighboring island countries and islands and reefs.
On the same width, although the scale of the vertical map is smaller than that of the horizontal map, the vertical sea area is more intuitive and complete.