Customer Reviews

GROOVY MAP NııN GUIDE SHANGHAI

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Shanghai is growing and changing so rapidly you cant tell whats going to be 'in' or 'out' next week. That said, I got the map and guide from Groovy Map and it was really cool. Like most of their series, the map is colorful, simply laid out but detailed enough to be easy to figure out locations and where things are located. The Guide is also well-written and pretty extensive covering lots of the better or in- the-know bars, restaurants and shops. Has Chinese icons too has important when you're not speaking to taxi drivers (just pointing)...

Shanghai is not the easiest city to 'get to know' after only 3 days there and especially if you are not a native speaker of Mandarin, but I was lucky enough to find this map and take it with me from my hotel while touring and travelling around. The map is very friendly and makes the navigation of this big busy city much easier. I found my way from hotel to shops and restauarnts and markets using this map and guide all day. The writing style is informal and you will feel like you are getting some good tips from a friend as opposed to a tourist brochure.

I bought this map last month. I returned from Shanghai yesterday 4/23/07. This map was copyrighted 4/1/05 and I guess the April Fool's joke was on me. Virtually every site for shopping on this map has been torn down or moved or both. Nanjing Road is still there but the fabric market, the Sunday antique market, Xiangxin market have moved and some are too far west to show up on the map. Asking taxi drivers to take you to a walled off construction site confuses them. Some of the old sites have signs directing you to the new location, such as the fabric and clothing market, but for others, you need to consult the concierge at your hotel. This map should not be sold until it is updated. This is a complete ripoff.

I found this map to be extremely helpful in Shanghai. It's laminated, and it has all the downtown streets clearly marked and major hotels, office buildings, parks, and other reference points clearly shown. The back side has quick-and-dirty lists of the best restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, etc. so you can use that info and leave your heavy tourist book at home.
There are not many other Shanghai maps available, and the others that I found are nowhere near as well-designed or useful as this one was. The $8 price is a bit high, but the map is really worth every penny, and this is the map to have if you need a good, detailed map of the downtown area.

The groovy map of Shanghai was very, very helpful. In combination with a regular, more recent map of Shanghai, we were able to eliminate carrying around any guidebooks. It was a great way to locate highpoints that were not on the map. Many times we just pointed to the spot on the map and that was sufficient for commmunticating with the chinese taxi drivers who rarely spoke any english.

I really loved the idea of having the tourist spots identified on the map. It is very up to date and well laid out. It folds nicely to carry and is better than any other maps of Shanghai I have seen

This map shows various restaurant, club, and shopping areas in a visual fashion. Basically, it just locates on a map what any standard guidebook would tell you about which areas are the best for tourist attractions. It also has a map of the subway. The brief descriptions on the back are handy too, because then you don't need to carry around a heavy guidebook all day, just the map (which you'd need anyway).

However, it didn't cover the area I was really interested in: XuJiaHui, the area around Shanghai Jiaotong University. For most tourists the focused section of the map may be enough but for those going for a longer stay, particularly near the shopping areas of Jiaotong, a bigger map will be necessary. I bought a second map to cover that area and more clearly delineate the district names.