Data on hospitals and epidemiological stations are derived from two directories published in the mid-1980s by the People's Health Publishing House (Renmin weisheng chubanshe). The directories contain listings of hospitals at county-level and above and of epidemiological stations, and are limited to those institutions in the Ministry of Health System. In all, over 10,000 institutions are listed. The directories list the address, specialty, number of beds and personnel, as well as the founding date of each institution. From these lists of institutions two county-level datasets were derived. Although not a complete listing of Chinese hospitals, the material provides a descriptive basis for the growth and spread of health-care institutions between 1950 and the mid-1980s (1985 for hospitals, 1987 for epidemiological stations). A particular feature of the dataset is the ability to represent institutional growth in a spatially- and temporally-disaggregated way. Institutional distribution can be visualized for any year (see maps for 1960, 1974, and 1988) and can also be visualized as a temporal and spatial process, as seen in the accompanying animations, the first of their kind for Chinese society: 1950-1987 (1701171 Bytes); 1950-1969 (1020219 Bytes); and 1970-1987 (855259 Bytes). The county data are keyed to the administrative divisions of China described in the 1986 edition of the Guobiao Codes (GB2260-86).
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