Edushi: Real SimCity Style Maps for China

Edushi, a Google Maps-like website for China, has been likened to a real version of SimCity, and it is not hard to see why. The site offers gorgeous maps of much of urban China, all integrated with advanced mapping features.

Even for those who are not residents of China, beautiful isometric cityscapes and landmarks  make the site well worth visiting.

Most of China’s largest cities can be explored using the program, which works much like Google maps, showing isometric bitmap imagery based on satellite photography, with great detail visible at the closest zoom levels.

The Forbidden City:

2D map of the 2008 Summer Olympics Complex in Bejing, via Google Maps:

3D map of the Olympics Complex, via Edushi:

Golden Resources Mall, Bejing:

Bank of China Tower and Citibank Complex, Hong Kong:

Renaissance Tower and Convention Center, Hong Kong:

Hong Kong City Hall, Hong Kong:

Sichuan TV Tower, Chengdu:

Chengdu Center, Chengdu:

Yellow Dragon Sports Center, Hangzhou:

Shenzen Civic Center, Shenzen:

McDonalds, Shanghai:

Viewers should probably be warned that actual cities may be at variance with the pristine ones depicted in the maps, particularly those cities shrouded in smog…

The program is also useful for giving directions to points on the map which users may wish to visit and showing traffic patterns integrated with Google Maps; naturally, it also provides plenty of practical shopping information in addition to appealing visuals.

Considering the amount of effort which must have gone into illustrating the cities, it seems an ideal use of China’s advantage in manpower; it might be prohibitively expensive anywhere else…