Primary Source Materials in China

The data are curated by Lin Hong, Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (lin.hong@nyu.edu) and Yun Dai, Library (yun.dai@nyu.edu).

The China Datasets Archive 2.0 has an exclusive focus on China, mostly collected from surveys, Chinese administrations, major data portals, and webs.

The datasets presented here should either have open access to the public, or require minimal registration (a single step of logging in), or at the most ask users to fill in an application form for permission.

The data can be accessed as either downloadable microdata, online analysis tools, or aggregate statistics. 

• NYU Library's guide to maps and GIS data of China. 
• China DCW GIS Data: Basic DCW (Digital Chart of the World) GIS datasets have been prepared for use with Robert Hartwell "China Historical Studies" datasets.
• China Local Gazetteers: provides detailed geographic and historical records of provinces, prefectures, cities, and smaller district administration units. Contents cover historical as well as contemporary facts related to the geographical areas, concerning general surveys, economy, public finance, governance, public security, urban and rural development, agriculture, industry, transportation, business, natural science, social science, education, culture and sports, public health, etc.
• Virtual Shanghai is a platform of 19th century to present, including documents, maps, photos, and cartographic tools for spatial analysis and real-time mapping.

Visit NYU Library's international data collections, too.  

• CEIC Data covers general and specific stats about China: from social services to the census at the local, regional, and national levels. 

• The World Bank offers plenty of data and economic information on various subjects for many countries including China. It is free and you can also search by topic or country and get the microdata or statistics to create new research topics. There are external partners contributing data files to the site. 

• China Sichuan Earthquake Data Portal: This portal was established in response to the severe earthquake that struck Sichuan, China on May 12th, 2008.