I just saw in the newspaper a Chinese public version of the national geographic information public service platform called the “Tianditu” website, constructed by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation. It is referred to as “China’s independently developed network map service website.” (Note: The independent intellectual property rights of “Tianditu” are mainly reflected in the online service software products; the satellite imagery data is obtained through commercial cooperation using imagery data from various commercial satellites.)
I used it immediately. Since my hometown is quite remote, its display on many electronic maps is often unsatisfactory, making it the perfect choice for testing. Here are the results:
It is possible to zoom in even further. The map shows a lot more detail; from this point alone, “Tianditu” is worthy of praise.
However, after BoJone searched online, I found that there are still many issues with Tianditu. For example, an article from the “Moonlight Blog” mentioned:
Some geographical names in “Tianditu” still use old names. For instance, the administrative division of the “Beijing City” map still follows the former “four core districts” instead of the current “two core districts.” In terms of map search services, many place names cannot be found, and many show incorrect search results. For example, searching for “Shenzhen” returns the first result as: “Shenzhen, Taoyuan County, Taiwan Province, China, Asia,” effectively “assigning” Shenzhen to Taiwan. I wonder what the reasoning is? Meanwhile, searching for “Shenzhen” on Google Maps and other domestic internet maps accurately locates Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. This indicates that the software development of “Tianditu” is not yet mature. Additionally, “Tianditu” does not provide a mobile version, making it impossible for users away from home to access the map via mobile phones...
In response to various doubts and questions, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation stated that the independent intellectual property rights of “Tianditu” are mainly reflected in the online service software products. Regarding data, vector data belongs to China’s independent intellectual property, while satellite imagery data is used through commercial cooperation with data from different commercial satellites. In the future, it will gradually be replaced by China’s own satellite imagery data. These commercial satellite companies acquire data specifically to provide it to various users; in fact, part of Google Maps’ imagery is also purchased from these commercial satellites. The claim that “Tianditu” uses Google Maps’ satellite imagery is a misunderstanding.
The National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation stated that “Tianditu” will consider launching a “Map Error Correction” function to fully mobilize the vast number of internet users to correct errors for “Tianditu,” thereby improving the real-time update capabilities of “Tianditu” data.
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