The China Data Center at the University of Michigan is dedicated to providing official data on China for scholars, practitioners and students around the world. The Center disseminates official statistics for Mainland China. The Center currently provides a number of services, and is working on expanding those services as well as helping institutions to network and collaborate. The Center is located on the University Michigan campus in Ann Arbor and is accessible via their website at http://chinadatacenter.org.
One fundamental service the Center provides is the distribution of data in hardcopy and online. The Center is a clearing-house for China’s Statistical Yearbooks, Population Census publications, and other data publications. Order forms and prices are available at the website. To promote the Center and research on China, however, universities can apply for a free single-user account. This means that one person at a time can use the system, but that anyone at the university can use the account. A form is available at the Center’s website to apply for this type of account.
The online data system is available in Chinese and English, and is easy to navigate. It provides annual and monthly data for the national economy and major cities, and annual data for counties. These data are also available in the official publications, but this system allows quick retrieval of specific indicators as well as monthly data with only a one to two month lag. In addition, very few libraries have complete sets of China’s statistical yearbooks, making this source especially valuable for creating complete series over time.
The Center has also recently started “China News Online.” This service is only in Chinese. It is a search engine focusing on current developments in China in economic development, population, environment, and new publications of statistical data and reports. Users can search by keywords and by date. In addition there are maps and other geography resources for faculty and student use, including a “Silk Route” section. The Center is working with GIS data combined with socio-economic data in some of the University’s projects.
Contact information for the China Data Center is as follows: China Data Center, International Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, tel: 734-647-9610; fax: 734-764-5540; email: [email protected].
