TechnicalGIS

China GIS data sources

Region
Eastern Asia
ISO 3166
CN · CHN
Sources
12
Themes
11
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for China: 12 sources across 11 themes, led by Chinese Academy of Sciences and NGCC. 5 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON, 1 covers elevation. 3 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for China

Boundaries & admin 3

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • National Geomatics Center of China (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    NGCC

    Producer of the national 1:1M database and GlobeLand30; most national datasets are not openly downloadable.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Land cover
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    ngcc.cn

    Verified

  • China - Subnational Administrative Boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    UN OCHA (HDX)

    OCHA administrative boundaries for China (2020), compiled from publicly available sources; useful where official boundaries cannot be downloaded.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    CC BY 3.0 IGO
    Formats
    Shapefile, File geodatabase, XLSX
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • geoBoundaries administrative boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    William & Mary geoLab

    JSON API listing every available admin level with direct download links.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Varies (open; see metadata)
    Formats
    GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON
    Link
    geoboundaries.org

    Verified

Imagery 2

Satellite and aerial imagery for every country

  • Geospatial Data Cloud (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Chinese Academy of Sciences

    Free Landsat, ASTER GDEM and SRTM mirrors; requires a (Chinese-language) registration.

    • Imagery
    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    gscloud.cn

    Verified

  • Tianditu (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free with registration

    Ministry of Natural Resources

    National online map service (vector, imagery and terrain tiles); API key needed and the site often blocks requests from outside China.

    • Imagery
    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    WMTS
    Link
    tianditu.gov.cn

    Not verified (site blocks automated checks) · 18 Oct 2026 (no response)

Land cover 1

Land cover datasets for every country

  • RESDC (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Mixed

    Chinese Academy of Sciences

    CAS land use/land cover, DEM and socio-economic grids for China; many datasets need registration and some are paid.

    • Land cover
    • Environment
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    resdc.cn

    Verified

Population 1

Gridded population data for every country

  • WorldPop population data – China (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    WorldPop, University of Southampton

    100 m and 1 km gridded population counts, age/sex structure and related layers.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    hub.worldpop.org

    Verified

Census & statistics 1

Census and statistics data for every country

Transport 1

Road, rail and transport data for every country

Climate & weather 1

Climate and weather data for every country

  • China Meteorological Data Service Centre (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    China Meteorological Administration

    Station and gridded climate data; registration (Chinese identity verification for most products) is required.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    CSV, NetCDF
    Link
    data.cma.cn

    Verified

Environment 1

Environmental and protected area data for every country

  • National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS · Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions

    Large catalogue of Third Pole and western China datasets (glaciers, permafrost, meteorology); many need a free account.

    • Environment
    • Climate & weather
    • Hydrology
    • Land cover
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, NetCDF, Shapefile
    Link
    data.tpdc.ac.cn

    Verified

Open data portal 1

Open geospatial data portals for every country

  • National Earth System Science Data Center (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Chinese Academy of Sciences / MOST

    National science data centre with land, water, soil and climate datasets; registration needed and site is in Chinese.

    • Open data portal
    • Environment
    • Land cover
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, Shapefile, NetCDF
    Link
    geodata.cn

    Verified

Global datasets that cover China

Worldwide and continental layers that include China, useful where national data is missing, restricted or inconsistent across borders.

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Environment
Open data portal

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries