Original link: http://vis.pku.edu.cn/blog/visualization4china/
“Visualizing China” is a long-term visual science popularization attempt carried out by the Visualization and Visual Analysis Laboratory of Peking University, especially during the National Science Popularization Week in 2022.
Brilliant China, the light is shattered. Over thousands of years, it has become a majestic place in the east. In the past few decades, ancient China has exploded with astonishing strength in its revival after a century of slump. Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes in terms of culture, economy, technology, and environment. Looking back on the past, words such as “the vicissitudes of life” and “earth-shaking” are no longer enough to describe this magnificent and long history. Fortunately, we can go beyond the vague concept of words and use the power of visualization technology to see the miracles that have been or are happening in this hot land.
“Visualization of China” (click “read the original text” to enter the website) is precisely conducted by the Visualization and Visual Analysis Laboratory of Peking University, the Key Laboratory of Machine Perception and Intelligence of the Ministry of Education of Peking University, and the National Engineering Laboratory of Big Data Analysis and Application Technology. The visualization developed by the Center for Health and Medical Visualization and Visual Analysis of the National Institute of Health and Medical Big Data of Peking University, the Beijing Virtual Simulation and Visualization Engineering Technology Research Center, and the Visualization and Visual Analysis Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Image and Graphics Attempt to popularize science, and fully update the content during the National Science Popularization Week in 2022. The website aims to help the public fully understand Chinese history, culture, economic development, and technological progress through visualization. Currently, it selects the relevant work in a series of scientific researches in the Visualization and Visual Analysis Laboratory of Peking University, as well as the graduate and undergraduate programs offered by Peking University every year. Visualization courses for students and some outstanding students’ course design works in the National Visualization Postgraduate Summer School, covering China’s cultural history, economic development, scientific and technological progress and other aspects. I hope to use the power of visualization technology to help the public understand China more comprehensively and look forward to future development.
Visualizing Chinese Culture
“Cong Ju has two tears, and the lonely boat is tied to the heart of the hometown.” The experience of “poetry saint” Du Fu’s wandering a thousand years ago also reflects the transformation of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline. With the help of the visualization of Du Fu’s life, the wandering in his youth and the wandering in his later years are vividly displayed on the screen.
Figure 1 Du Fu’s life path
Modern Chinese archaeology is of great significance to understanding Chinese history and culture. Several generations of archaeologists in New China have made unremitting efforts and made a series of major archaeological discoveries, showing the origin, development, splendid achievements and major contributions of Chinese civilization to world civilization. It has played an important role in better understanding the long-standing and profound Chinese civilization. The visualization of “Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in the Past Years” provides a novel, convenient and interesting perspective for understanding the development of Chinese archaeology in the past 30 years, better showing the development context of Chinese archaeology and the elegance of Chinese civilization.
Figure 2 Top ten new archaeological discoveries over the years
Visualization to see China’s economic take-off
Companies from mainland China (including Hong Kong) will become the largest group of companies entering the Fortune Global 500 list in 2020. Since the reform and opening up, how have Chinese enterprises achieved historic leaps? How has the nature of the company changed? How to reflect the development of the national economy? The visualization of China’s top 500 companies will give you a glimpse.
Figure 3 Development and changes of China’s top 500 companies
Visualizing the Development of China’s Science and Technology
As of the end of 2020, the total railway mileage in the mainland has reached 146,300 kilometers, of which more than 37,900 kilometers are high-speed railways, surpassing the total mileage of high-speed railways in all other countries/regions in the world. China’s railway system connects the world and brings distant towns closer. We can see how the progress of China’s railway construction over the past 120 years has changed the traffic between cities through the dynamic deformation map.
Figure 4 China (Mainland) Railway Development in 120 Years
“The sky is high and the earth is different, and the universe is infinite.” All along, China has never stopped exploring the vast universe, in which astronomical telescopes have played an indispensable and important role. This visualization shows the spatiotemporal and parameter distribution information of 62 telescopes at 25 observatories in China.
Figure 5 Distribution of astronomical telescopes in China
This visualization shows the distribution of work units and their regions for newly elected academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2021.
Figure 6 Distribution of newly elected academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2021
Visualization of China’s Environmental Protection
Air quality is related to people’s daily life. Through the air quality indicators in the past few years, we can witness this war to defend the blue sky. The graceful rings show the year-to-year changes in several air quality indicators for several cities.
Figure 7 Beijing air quality visualization
We hope that “Visualizing China” can help you see China’s development from different perspectives, popularize visualization knowledge to the society, and improve the public’s data literacy. Everyone is welcome to forward and promote, and we also welcome interested parties to provide data or contribute (contact [email protected]), so that visualization can play a greater role in understanding China and helping China’s development.
Visually see the Chinese homepage
http://vis.pku.edu.cn/vis4china/
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