Originally Posted by
moondog
How much detail do you require? If you want to get down to individual residences in cities with populations of 10+ million, too much detail can be painful.
Can't assist on this point unless I do some digging myself
This is another variation of point 1, so my response is the same
Are we talking 1 year, 5 year, 10 years? I would say 2 years or more recent is probably good enough. As I mentioned up thread, you might miss out on a few subway lines, but subway lines tend to be built in order to importance (i.e. the oldest ones are the most useful)
Well, then the free maps are probably worth a little more consideration. Or drop $15 each on LPs for Shanghai and Taipei.
You can use a permanent marker if this is a deal breaker
I agree that the decline of Google Maps is a bit of a shocker. My biggest current beef is that they show subway stations, but not subway lines (if there is a way to display them, I haven't figured it out yet). But, Baidu is still quite solid, and even useful if your Chinese reading ability isn't so great. If nothing else, you can compare them against subway route maps -- save all to your phone
I need a map that is up to date enough to include all the metro stations (with names) that currently exist. I'll accept a map from 2016 or 2017, but no earlier. China is a fast-developing country. Street maps of Shanghai from just a few years ago only show about 5 metro lines. There are now over a dozen.
Also, it isn't very useful to me to have an incomplete map that omits a part of a city that I'm exploring. I think this is self-evident.
A permanent marker's point isn't fine enough to write small print on a detailed map. I can only do this with a fine point pen.
6 years ago, I wouldn't have posted this question here. I would have simply printed a perfect map from either Google or Michelin (both of which have declined) and been on my merry way. The fact that I had to resort to posting here speaks volumes about how hard it is to find things that I used to take for granted.