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Google's English-language Shanghai map gets major upgrade


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Remember when Google's English-language map of Shanghai was, save for some groovy satellite pics, pretty much blank? Remember that? You should. It was like a week ago. Anyway, thanks to a tip on our Contribute Page, we learn that the map has gotten a makeover. To do this, looks like Google has teamed with MapABC, that same firm that does Google's Chinese maps and the same firm City Weekend is experimenting with for English maps on their site (see here).

We haven't used Google's new English map much yet, but on first glance it doesn't seem as feature-rich as Chinese-language maps of Shanghai or Google Maps of cities in the US. The few searches we did on Google's English map of Shanghai didn't work out too well. But it's a promising start, and it's nice to know we aren't being ignored anymore. We hope for more user-friendliness in the future.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Dan Washburn in on July 18, 2008 6:10 PM

Comments [rss]

  • davehattan

    Using Google's updated data, a map of Shanghai clubs, subways, etc... Shanghai Map

  • Bumix

    Sorry for the late comeback, but i need to say that it's really PANYU LU! It's named after a historical town/district next to Guangzhou in Guangdong. I actually lived on Panyu Lu in Shanghai and then started working right next to Panyu town, so i am kind of an expert! :)

    I know that the character 番 by itself is usually pronounced 'fan' and 80% of the taxi drivers in Shanghai only know 'Fanyu Lu', but it's still wrong.

    -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panyu

  • lollopaz

    all the Olympic host cities have been changed

  • matthewmayer

    Note that all street mapping in China is shifted about 500m from the true latitude/longitude for 'security reasons'. If you look at a placemark in Google Earth compared to Google Maps, they won't match up properly!

  • matthewmayer
  • ououou

    To Bumix

    it's fanyu rd not panyu rd,mate!

  • Bumix

    It's Panyu Lu not Fanyu Lu!!

  • dedlam

    Hurrah. But whats the deal with the bookstores.

  • lollopaz

    Huangponanlu? Shanxin? come on... that said, at a different zoom level Shanxin becomes Shanxinanlu, which is still misleading (e.g. 陕新安路), but better. That different zoom levels have different text implies workflow troubles, methinks. But an improvement nonetheless.



    Looks like Beijing's been made over too (perhaps this happened before, it's been a while since i used maps.google.com). However, a sample of other provincial capitals (Ji'nan, Kunming, Guangzhou) implies that Chinese is in use elsewhere, which i think is still an improvement to the 'blankness' that existed before.

  • wandernut

    Strange. I don't recall ever seeing a Metro station on Huashan Lu or Gao'an Lu.

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