[1] The database provides biographical information (name, date of birth and death, ancestral place, degrees and offices held, kinship and social associations, etc.)

[citation needed] Later, Michael A. Fuller, Professor of Chinese Literature at UC Irvine, started to redesign the application.

As a joint project of Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica (中研院歷史語言研究所), and Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History at Peking University (北京大學中國古代史研究中心), the database has been greatly expanded in temporal and coverage scope.

Since the database does not require in-depth research into each individuals, factual errors and contradictory information would also be included in the entries, as long as they are from the primary source.

[8] One useful geo-reference tool for the study of Chinese history is the China Historical GIS (CHGIS) project, which makes datasets of the administrative units between 221 BC and 1911 AD and major towns for the 1820–1911 period freely available.