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> 1. Never use Google Maps in China; Google Maps in China are just hilariously wrong and out of date and will get you lost. Even if Google Maps wasn't blocked y
by verst 11y ago
> 1. Never use Google Maps in China; Google Maps in China are just hilariously wrong and out of date and will get you lost. Even if Google Maps wasn't blocked you wouldn't want use it in China. Apple Maps is the best English language solution, it's accurate and up to date; that or Baidu Maps if you read Chinese.
I'm an Android user. I just spent 10 weeks in Shanghai from early October to mid December. I can read some amount of Chinese but simply not enough to use Baidu Maps for all my navigation needs.
I found Google Maps (via Express VPN) to be perfectly fine in Shanghai. The public transportation suggestions and times were completely off, but locating a given address (my main use case in Shanghai) and using walking directions was never an issue.
In Shanghai you use Uber/Didi Kuaidi/Taxi or the Metro as opposed to driving yourself. As long as you can use Google Maps to look up the Pinyin spelling of the next major intersection so that you can pronounce that to a Taxi driver you are good to go. :)
Interestingly enough when roaming for free on T-Mobile (at 2G speeds) I was able to access Google Maps and most foreign internet services without the need of a VPN.
- sdm 11y agoI'm an Apple user so I'm not very familiar with the offerings on Android. I don't drive. Apple Maps has all the public transport info so that's key to me for any map. Plus, in Suzhou where I live, I've found much of Google Maps to ridiculously out of date. It's gotten me lost many times before I switch to Apple Maps. Now when I go for a trip abroad I switch back to Google Maps and when I get home I switch back to Apple Maps. > Interestingly enough when roaming for free on T-Mobile (at 2G speeds) I was able to access Google Maps and most foreign internet services without the need of a VPN. Yup, if you are roaming on another a foreign provider you will rare have any troubles. Not sure why, but that's always been the case.
- verst 11y agoNever made it to Suzhou so I can't tell you how I would have fared there. However in Yunnan province (Dali, Lijiang, Kunming) I didn't have too many problems with Google Maps either. I would have loved to use Baidu Maps all the time if there were a Pinyin mode. When I first installed the app I was shocked by the permissions it requested, but on stock Android I didn't really have a choice. I do think international iPhone users generally have it easier in China. Let's see what happens this year (or next) with Google resuming some operations in China (saw some job openings focused on Ads in Shanghai and Beijing).