All posts tagged: Asia

Historical Map: Tramways and Trolleybus Routes of Shanghai, 1939

October 3, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

At first glance, this appears to be a basic map outlining tram and trolleybus routes within Shanghai’s International Settlement, dated December 1939. It’s only when you read the legend that you start to realise the greater historical context of this map. The statement that accompanies the dotted route lines in the legend simply states “No service in operation at present due to circumstances beyond the company’s control” – an massive understatement of the volatile situation in Shanghai […]

Submission – Historical Map: Bus Network, Beijing, China, c. 1950

September 24, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Historical Maps
Tags:

A very rudimentary and crudely printed bus map from Beijing in the early 1950s. Identifying landmarks seem to consist solely of the city’s ancient inner and outer fortified walls (which were about to be mostly torn down by this time) and what looks like the outline of the Temple of Heaven towards the bottom of the map. The original forum post (see source below) says that some of the routes shown here are still numbered […]

Official Map: Interactive Metro Map, Pyongyang, North Korea

March 21, 2013
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps
Tags:

An interactive metro map from North Korea’s secretive capital. The green buttons across the bottom of the map represent all the stations: press one and the path from your current station to your destination lights up. With just a handful of stations on two lines (and only one interchange), I hardly think many people are going to be overwhelmed by the system’s complexity. Wikipedia’s article on the Pyongyang Metro is actually a very interesting read: the […]

In-Car Strip Map, Seoul Metro, South Korea

December 7, 2012
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Official Maps, Photography
Tags:

Submitted by Sam Gold, who says: “Taken last week on Line 2 of the Seoul Metro.  I found these system maps to be close to unusable!” Transit Maps says: Hard to disagree with Sam here. You’d need some excellent vision or really good glasses to be able to make out all the detail on this map, which crams all of Seoul’s extensive system into an area often used to show just one line or far […]

Unofficial Map: Istanbul Rapid Transit by Kerim Bayer

June 13, 2012
Leave a comment
Filed Under:
Unofficial Maps
Tags:

One of the things I love about running this blog is when amateur map designers send me their work for review. The quality of these maps is often amazing, and this one of Istanbul’s rapid transit network by Istanbul native Kerim Bayer is a fantastic example. Design- and quality-wise, it far surpasses the official map (shown above for comparative purposes), which is a bit of a shambles: weird angles, muddy colours, poorly drawn and a […]