Definition
GEO1_CN identifies the household's province within China in all sample years. Provinces are the first level administrative units of the country. GEO1_CN is spatially harmonized to account for political boundary changes across census years. Some detail is lost in harmonization; see the comparability discussion. A GIS map (in shapefile format), corresponding to GEO1_CN can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.
The full set of geography variables for China can be found in the IPUMS International Geography variables list. For cross-national geographic analysis on the first and second major administrative level, refer to GEOLEV1, and GEOLEV2. More information on IPUMS-International geography can be found here.
At the present moment, IPUMS International is only releasing integrated geography for the first level of geography for China. Year specific geography and maps along with variables that are spatially harmonized at the second level of geography and account for political boundary changes across census years will become available in the near future.