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It's 2024, we can do better than blurry horribly blown out pictures these days. Check for example https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=34.39719,113.94792&z=15&t=SL&marke
by zokier 2y ago
It's 2024, we can do better than blurry horribly blown out pictures these days. Check for example https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=34.39719,113.94792&z=15&t=SL&marker0=34.76400%2C113.68400%2CZhengzhou https://mapper.acme.com/?ll=34.39719,113.94792&z=15&t=SL&mar... for cleaner shot of the site (zoom in few notches for extra details). Google Maps annoyingly cuts half-way through the factory site.
edit: that ACME mapper image looks to be from mid-2023, in more recent imagery the construction on the east side has been completed.
- jcranmer 2y agoThe thing about that image that amuses me the most is that there is a local grid pattern that isn't aligned north-south, and the factory goes "don't care" and instead smashes itself through everything on a straight cardinal direction alignment.
- dirkt 2y agoThough you can see the same alignment as the factory in town further to the west, with newer streets. I guess it makes sense to align the factory to this grid, and not to the older grid that followed the fields.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- skybrian 2y agoWhen you zoom out far enough in ACME mapper, the factory disappears. (I'm guessing that's an older image.)
- ImaCake 2y agoYep, pretty common for different zoom levels to be different time points. ACME is using plane photography for its high zoom images. You could try zoom.earth for hourly/12hourly satellite imagery.
- zokier 2y agoAlthough it is generally true that aerial photography is used to supplant satellite imagery in these sorts of public map services, I'm pretty confident that the image of BYD factory here is actual satellite imagery.
- ImaCake 2y agoOhh I didn’t think you could get satellite images at this kind of resolution!
- mapt 2y agoYeah, China tends to classify aerial survey photos as strategic intelligence assets. Did a scientific project there. It was a whole thing. The local/city/regional CCP branch was not cooperative with even the most innocuous low altitude drone data gathering from foreigners for ecology studies, despite sponsorship by local & national universities. There is even a random-geometric-distortion obfuscation layer that you have to apply to maps you're allowed to serve up publicly while doing business in China, like one of those distorted mesh grid paintings. Takes in WGS84 and spits out a nonsense projection a hundred meters away.
- MichaelZuo 2y agoWhy did you expect local officials to stick their necks out for you? They don’t make the relevant laws but can be punished by higher authorities for breaking them. Unless it could be legally guranteed any potential punishment would be transferred to your team’s shoulders, it’s bizarre to expect someone else sitting in some municipal office to take the risk.
- mazugrin2 2y agoWhy did you expect a foreigner who is not from China to realize that they'd be inhibited by the local authorities from doing work they were invited to do by those same local authorities? It's bizarre to think that it's bizarre that a foreigner might merely express some surprise by that.
- meiraleal 2y agoThe way Chinese towns are organized is incredible. I'm impressed by this map.
- looofooo0 2y agoNo freight train connection to the factory??
- jpgvm 2y agoThere is. In fact it's called a "land port" for a reason, the park has a huge freight yard connected to 2 rail lines it's just not shown in this picture because it's shared infrastructure of the industrial park.
- qwezxcrty 2y agoI don't think there is any railway link to the site, at least in the short term. Both of the two rail lines nearby are passanger only high speed (250 km/h to 350 km/h) lines (references: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E9%83%91%E9%98%9C%E9%AB%98%E9%80%9F%E9%93%81%E8%B7%AF https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E9%83%91%E9%98%9C%E9%AB%98%E... , https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E9%83%91%E6%B8%9D%E9%AB%98%E9%80%9F%E9%93%81%E8%B7%AF https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/%E9%83%91%E6%B8%9D%E9%AB%98%E... ). The train yard ~5 km north of the factory is 郑州南动车所, also a high speed rail depot. That area is called 郑州港区 (literal translation Zhengzhou "port area", full name: 郑州航空港经济综合实验区) is actually for it's closeness to the airport (ZHCC). English reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhengzhou_Airport_Economy_Zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhengzhou_Airport_Economy_Zone .
- hnthrowaway0315 2y agoYeah I think so. Zhengzhou has perhaps the largest yard in China. The factory is there for a reason.
- Symbiote 2y agoToggle the layer to "Map" and you can find the railway lines easily, although train in the depot looks like a high speed train (huge, long windscreen).
- willyt 2y agoAll that track connected to the depot you are talking about is high speed passenger infrastructure. Just touching the south side of the factory is what looks like an old single track line if you follow it to the west there's a passing loop just the other side of the nearest village. If you switch to back and forth between map view and satellite view this eventually leads to a spur shown in map view that stops at a road. Not sure if the line is under construction or decommissioned or what.