BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- China launched a new atlas of administrative divisions here Friday to make public the results of its recent survey and demarcation of nearly 480,000 km inter-province or inter-county borderlines.

    "Regional borderline uncertainties had long existed in China, resulting in many regional disputes. In previous Chinese atlas, 70 to 80 percent of the borderlines were marked in broken lines as an expedient to blur the border controversy," said Dai Junliang, director of the Department of Administrative Divisions under the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), at Friday's press conference.

    In the new atlas, more than 6,300 borderlines between provinces and counties are marked with accuracy and legal augustness, which provides authoritative reference for resolving any border disputes within Chinese territory, said Dai.

    The 29.7-by-42 cm atlas include China's 34 provincial units, 333 prefectures, 2,862 counties and about 40,000 townships' boundaries and related information.

    The atlas was compiled with sophisticated computer cartography and two-year labor-intensive field work. It is jointly published by the MCA, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping and China Cartographic Publishing House. Enditem