Buying GPS in China - Attn Auke and rhiekel

[daewoo]

Off to China on Wednesday for work. Thinking of getting a GPS for the bike... ATM thinking of a Garmin 62S or Zumo 220 - don't need much functionality... (tell me if I am going wrong)...

Mostly I am just recalling something in someones trip report here about their Thai purchased GPS not working in China, and want to be sure if I buy the GPS in China it will work in Australia and Thailand...

Auke, rheikel (I think it was your trip report)... any ideas???

Cheers,
Daewoo

 

[Auke]

Daewoo,

Unfortunately the China Garmin maps have an offset in the position as Robert Hiekel found out so you never know exactly where you are. In case you want to be sure you will either have to buy a GPS in China (most probably it will have only Chinese language or if you are lucky you will get Pidgin Chinese) or download a hacked map with the offset removed (they are around on the WWW but a bit difficult to find).

 

[daewoo]

Auke wrote: Daewoo,

Unfortunately the China Garmin maps have an offset in the position as Robert Hiekel found out so you never know exactly where you are. In case you want to be sure you will either have to buy a GPS in China (most probably it will have only Chinese language or if you are lucky you will get Pidgin Chinese) or download a hacked map with the offset removed (they are around on the WWW but a bit difficult to find).

Hi Auke,

thanks for your reply, but I don't really understand it...

I want to buy a GPS in China, because it is much cheaper than in Australia... but I will never use it in China (only there 5 days)...

I want to use it in Australia and Thailand...

Is the offset in the Maps, and therefore fixed as soon as I load an Australian/Thai map??? Or is it in the GPS, and therefore when I load my maps it will always be wrong (and useless)???

Cheers,
Darryl

 

[Auke]

Sorry, apparently misunderstood your message. Robert's GPS (bought in Thailand) worked in China but, as the China map has a random offset of a few hundred meters, the GPS did not show his position properly on the map. The Garmin GPS's sold in China have something build in which corrects the offset on the map and will then show the location on the map correctly.

For as far as I know the offset is in the map and a GPS bought in China should work properly with other maps in other parts of the world but don't shoot me if I am wrong.

 

[daewoo]

Auke wrote:
For as far as I know the offset is in the map and a GPS bought in China should work properly with other maps in other parts of the world but don't shoot me if I am wrong.

Thanks Auke,

makes sense, don't worry, I won't shoot the messenger...

Cheers,
Darryl