China's Digital Mapping Plan

China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) has embarked on Digital China, an ambitious project listed in China's 10th five-year plan that aims to map the entire country digitally. The project aims at decision support for the country's leaders in natural disaster prevention and city planning. The state media reported that the mapping project would also include registration of personal details regarding individuals in over 600 Chinese cities and more than 2,000 counties. The SBSM has already created three digital map series of the country with a level of detail comparable to map scales of 1:4 million, 1:1 million and 1:250,000. This year the digital map series will be finished that is equivalent to a map scale of 1:50,000. Local initiatives should result in more detailed digital maps, some of these even in 3D. The city of Weihai in East China's Shandong Province has already produced a detailed 3D digital city map.