He may have drawn more pictures than you have walked.

Although he is over 90 years old, Chen Yu, former researcher at the Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, is still in good spirits and maintains a good life.

Chen Yu flipping through the atlas (Photo by People's Daily reporter Wang Yongzhan)

Every morning, he always likes to read the news of the day. If he happens to come across news related to geography and map research, he always stays there for a while. Having been engaged in map compilation for decades, this is a memory and career that he can never erase or let go of.

Therefore, the study in his home was also named "Pintu House".

Walking into the "Picture House", flipping through the treasured atlases inside, and then tidying up the study is Chen Yu's hobby and the second thing he must do every day. "In the future, I plan to donate all the atlases in the 'Picture House' to the Chengdu Mountain Research Institute." This wish has been mentioned by Chen Yu countless times.

Chen Yu’s study has everything from national atlases to provincial atlases, from remote sensing atlases to thematic atlases, from paper atlases to electronic atlases. It can be said that he witnessed and even personally promoted the development of my country’s cartography. However, the most eye-catching of his works is the red-bottomed and gold-stamped “Natural Atlas of the People’s Republic of China”.

Every time he opened these atlases, Chen Yu's career seemed to unfold slowly along with the maps...

"Enter the world of maps"

To this day, Chen Yu still speaks with a strong local accent, as if to commemorate the starting point of his decision to enter the field of map and geographical research - Henan. It was a "beautiful encounter" for the young boy guided by curiosity.

By chance, Chen Yu read a copy of Traveler magazine at school. He originally opened it with the mentality of doing extracurricular reading, but was deeply attracted by the rich geographical knowledge and various maps in it. He thought that the beautiful mountains and rivers of the motherland were gathered on a small picture for people to check at any time, and they could travel thousands of miles without any effort. Isn't this wonderful!

From then on, interest became the best teacher, driving him to resolutely choose the geography department when applying for university.

In 1956, Chen Yu graduated from the Department of Geography of Henan University and was assigned to work at the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, Jiangsu. At the same time, the Cartography Research Office of the Institute of Geography had just been established, so Chen Yu became the business secretary of Chen Shupeng, the then director of the Cartography Research Office and a famous geographer and cartographer, which brought him one step closer to his "young scholar's ambition".

However, although geography and cartography can be related in some aspects, they are still two different research directions. Cartography focuses on the expression, processing and transmission of map information. Its purpose is to express people's scientific understanding of the geographical environment in the form of symbols and images, and to guide people to compile various general maps and thematic maps, so as to serve economic and social development. To complete this kind of work was a big challenge for Chen Yu, who had just started working at that time.

"At that time, the cartography discipline in our country had not yet been formed." Chen Yu said, therefore, both at the individual level and at the level of the entire industry development, it is necessary to start from scratch and accumulate step by step.

When Chen Yu first came into contact with cartography, he learned and grew up in practice. In 1958, the National Atlas Compilation Committee was established in Beijing, and Chen Shupeng led Chen Yu to participate in the compilation of the "Natural Atlas of the People's Republic of China". This atlas is a component of the National Atlas, and dozens of units across the country, hundreds of scientists, cartographers and technical workers participated in it.

Scientific research is full of ups and downs, and Chen Yu's map compilation work is no exception. At that time, almost everyone in the project team lacked experience in compiling large-scale atlases, so Chen Yu and others pursued the concept of "diligence can make up for lack of talent" and actively conducted comparative studies on more than 40 domestic and foreign atlases, analyzed their advantages and disadvantages one by one, and wrote and edited four volumes of "National Large Atlas Work Bulletin", which included many map reading reports.

In 1964, the "Natural Atlas of the People's Republic of China" was officially completed, and Chen Yu served as the deputy editor-in-chief of the atlas.

Natural Atlas of the People's Republic of China

This is the first large-scale comprehensive atlas in my country, covering eight groups of maps, including introductory maps, geology, landforms, climate, and hydrology. Compared with previous atlases, this atlas briefly introduces the features of my country's natural environment and natural resources, and explains the distribution patterns and interrelationships of various natural phenomena. It is an important reference for studying my country's natural conditions and natural resources, and conducting economic and scientific planning. It also has great reference value for industrial construction, transportation planning, and water conservancy construction.

For Chen Yu personally, "this work means that I have a systematic understanding and knowledge of cartography as a whole, and I know how maps are compiled. It has become an important turning point in my dream of cartography."

"The road under your feet is drawn from the map in his hands"

"I congratulate you, you have done a great thing for the people..." These passionate words were brighter than the sunshine on January 8, 1965. Guo Moruo, then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, strongly affirmed the work of Chen Yu and others over the years at a meeting of the Natural Atlas Special Committee of the National Atlas Compilation Committee.

This moving picture remained in Chen Yu's mind for decades. He always clearly remembered why he was so excited at the time and what his original intention was for devoting himself to this field.

Therefore, not long after, in response to the needs of the country's "Third Line" construction, Chen Yu followed the transfer and rushed from Beijing to the Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Chengdu (later the Chengdu Institute of Geography, Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, now referred to as "Chengdu Mountain Institute") to prepare for the establishment of a map research laboratory.

Even though the conditions were poor, equipment was in short supply, and everything was at zero, Chen Yu always said that he was lucky because his teacher Chen Shupeng provided great help.

The first set of automatic mapping prototype equipment in China was allocated to the Cartography Research Laboratory at Chen Shupeng's initiative. "Later, an advanced computer made abroad was also provided to us, and geographic information system software was introduced, which greatly facilitated the work of scientific researchers. I was very satisfied and grateful," Chen Yu recalled.

Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences

In the early days of reform and opening up, remote sensing technology developed rapidly internationally, but it was still a new thing for mapping.

It was not until the 1980s, when Chen Yu and his colleagues began compiling the "Ecological and Environmental Atlas of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River", that remote sensing technology and cartography were truly integrated into engineering design and construction services. Thanks to the application of aviation and satellite remote sensing information, 11 types of maps, including the hydrological, climate and environmental map group, were compiled, providing important references for construction personnel.

After more than ten years of exploration, in July 2001, Chen Yu presided over the compilation of another large-scale atlas, "Atlas of Sustainable Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt", which was officially published...

After that, even after retiring from the Chengdu Mountain Research Institute, Chen Yu never stopped his habit of working with maps. In 2005, Modern Atlas Design and Research, which carried his experience in atlas design for most of his life, was published. In the book, each map clearly shows the relationship between data acquisition, map design, and atlas compilation, and elaborates on Chen Yu's ideas in atlas design.

In addition to scientific research, this "restless" researcher has also started to think about popular science work. "Where did the world's earliest map appear? Which is the first national map of my country? In fact, I was curious about this. So after I step down, maybe I can tell these scientific answers to the new generation of young people." Chen Yu kept his word. In 2018, the popular science book "Enter the World of Maps" compiled by Chen Yu as the first author was published. It not only received widespread attention from the society, but also won the silver medal of the 2020 Pei Xiu Award for Outstanding Map Works.

Today, many, many years have passed since Chen Yu retired, but in his documents, suggestions for the compilation of various atlases for the Chengdu Mountain Institute are still being added one after another...