Coastline was one of the earliest object in the fields of fractal research. However

the fractal dimension of coastline in one country has not been studied systematically so far. In this paner

programs are designed to calculate two kinds of fractal dimensions—box-counting dimension and divider dimension. Meanwhile

the method and the principle by which the complexity of the coastline is analyzed have been put forward through computing the fractal dimension of the common printing map and the electronic map. And for the first time

the complexities of the coastline computed by different scales

computational methods and modes of map are compared and analyzed. On this base

conclusions of the complexity of the coastline of the Chinese maritime provinces are drawn . The fractal dimensional value calculated by divider method is always bigger than that by box-counting method. The variety of the geographical constitution and aboriginal physiognomy from north to south is approximately consistent with the variety trend of the fractal dimension. To the electronic maps with the same precision and different scale

the fractal dimension goes along with the scale.