The China Statistical Yearbook 2008, the annual publication of the China Statistics Press, is one of the most important tools in any China researcher's library. The 2008 Edition's twenty-five chapters and two appendices focus on comprehensive data series in 2007 and reflect various aspects of China's social and economic development. This yearbook is also supplemented with brief introductions and explanatory notes which give a description of the concepts behind and scope of the data, the calculation methods used, and historical analysis