China, Xinjiang, Urumuqi, Midongnan Lu, Bingtuandekun 新疆，乌鲁木齐, 米东南路, 兵团德坤, This is the front gate
I am in Toronto, but can use Baidu to virtually go to China. It is fun to be able to walk through China and take a look. Today I went to Urumuqi, captal city of Xinjiang, China. Urumuqi, Xinjiang is not only far, but probably off limits to foreigners. The map is old, pics taken in 2015. The place I wanted to go is not yet on the maps.
新疆，乌鲁木齐, 米东南路, 兵团德坤 Xinjiang, Urumuqi, Midongnan Lu, Bingtuandekun
GPS: 43.901088, 87.612782, Plus Code: 8MM9WJ27+C4 These locations are inaccurate due to Chinese national security laws
Chongqing, China, 重庆，Shapingba District, 沙坪坝区 Google Maps in Chinese
A Chinese friend randomly sent me her GPS coordinates. She was on a highway, deep within Sichuan province, just outside of Chongqing. Because Chongqing, with a population greater than the whole population of Canada, 30.1M people (2015), is so huge, this meant that she was just on the outskirts of the city. Mapping her GPS coordinates, between Google and Baidu maps, was, as usual, confusing. Here is the exercise.
The original coordinates sent to me were 29.656019,106.444153, or 29°39’21.7″N 106°26’39.0″E, 7PX8MC4V+CM. 沙坪坝区 Shapingba My Windows PC returned this URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/29°39’21.7″N+106°26’39.0″E/@29.650779,106.3959376,12z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d29.656019!4d106.444153?hl=zh-CN
I‘ve pretty much proved this, but in North America Google Maps is much better than Baidu. Here are maps from Downtown Toronto, near Bloor and East of Yonge Streets. Google Maps has actual street names and buildings. Baidu has only restaurants. Google’s satellite map is also really good. I could have also zoomed in for greater detail. Hands down, Google wins on English maps of Toronto.
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, Google Maps
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, Baidu Maps
Charles Street, near Bloor Street, Downtown Toronto, satellite, Google Maps
Spare time, I had, and wanted to see where someone was physically located in China. The place is a small town on the border of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, on the Yellow River. What were the odds that I could find her exact location and get a satellite photo of her building?
I started using Google Maps, which was pretty helpful. Considering that Google is not allowed in China, they still had maps of the small city and specifically the 1km section of road that interested me. The sat photo showed great detail, as you can see, but the roads from the diagram did not coordinate very well with the sat map. In fact they were really so far off that some roads went underwater, like tunnels.
Google Street started today, and they sure take some detailed photos.
There’s a pesky grey and white cat at the end of on my driveway. Who it belongs to I know not. It seems to be waiting for the garbage truck, or a taxi. The photo was taken in early spring, because our tulips are in bloom and our apricot tree is showing off their lovely white flowers. It’s about noon time. The image quality of the newly released (to Toronto) Google Street View is pretty amazing, and though I am not sure of its usefulness, it sure is interesting.
