Recommended Maps or travel guides

[AT Thru]

I was wondering if someone could recommend the best ( in English) road maps/travel guide and where to buy? I am traveling From Chongqing to Jiuzhaigou and to Chengdu by car with my wife in about 2 weeks, we are doing a 2 week road trip any suggestion would be great!

Edited June 9, 2016 by AT Thru (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Autonavi seems to be the best (first) source for maps of China - it'll often show roads before they've even been opened, but Chinese characters only. Both Google and Baidu get their maps from this source, but usually up to a year or so later. AMAP is the Android cell phone app. Google uses Western characters, but may not be accessible without a VPN.

 

Garmin sells a very good map of China for their GPS devices, but it is very cluttered with the way they use Western characters. They show your location as offset from where you actually are, unless you download and install a corrective app. On my Garmin, this causes it to crash.

 

You can download and print maps before you leave if you don't have a mobile GPS.

 

Our car (Toyota) has an excellent map for its in-dash GPS, but ours is very old - we're still waiting for a new update which will show all the new roads around here.

 

Autonavi maps

AMAP for Android

Google Maps - China

 

Google CN Maps

 

Be aware that China uses a different coordinate system which differs from ours by up to 100 to 200 meters. Satellite coordinates use the Western system, while your cell phone gets the Chinese coordinates from the cell towers (my cell phone alternates between the two when using Google maps).

 

Mapping China - Chinese style

 

Google Maps and Google Maps CN (as linked to above) use the Western and Chinese systems respectively - with a resulting mismatch at the borders for both maps.

 

Autonavi fully corrects for the Chinese system vs. the Western (and satellite) system of coordinates, but is Chinese characters only.

A map of our trip to Zhuhai/Macau - the new road between Cenxi and Yunfu was shown only by Autonavi. If we had followed any other map, we would have had to go North through Wuzhou.

 

Macau and Hong Kong use the Western coordinate system. Google shows a mismatch - roads that don't connect, or are even shown in a body of water.

 

Edited June 9, 2016 by Randy W (see edit history)

[AT Thru]

• Thank you !!