Shanghai Tech WriterTechnical Writing, Technology, Web2.0, Google, Shanghai, China

When I was in high school, two of my favorite computer games were SimCity Classic and SimCity 2000, by Maxis. Maxis is the same company that released SimTower, SimEarth, SimAnt, a few more versions of SimCity, The Sims, The Sims 2, and most recently, Spore. These games are all simulation-type games where players act like “gods” creating, planning, and managing their miniature versions of you-name-it.

SimCity, as the name suggests, is a city planning/building simulation game. In the game, you start with a certain amount of money to build roads, sewage system, power plants, power lines, and other infrastructures like police station, fire station, hospitals, libraries, parks, schools, etc… You also decide which areas you want to designate for industrial, commercial, and residential use.

Everything costs money to build and maintain. The only way to earn money is when the city’s population increases. If your city is nice, more people move in and you earn more money. If your city sucks, people move out and your city rots and decays.

The game is open-ended so there’s really no end goal other than whatever you want to do with your city. You can build a small suburban town or a huge metropolis. You can also destroy your city by sending disasters like fire, earthquake and tornadoes!

Needless to say, I spent way too many hours of my high school years glued to the Sim City map and building my little metropolis. I think the biggest city I built had a population of over 2 million people (or was it 20 million?!) I can’t remember. I think I named one of metropolis Shanghai!!

E-City 3000

What prompted me to remember my high school gaming days and writing a post about SimCity is because today, I came across a website called Edushi, which means “E-City” in English.

On Edushi website, you can view 3D maps of several cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and many other cities. Edushi 3D maps are like a hybrid of Google Earth satellite images and SimCity graphics. Matter of fact, the maps look a lot like the cities I used to build in SimCity, but much prettier! The buildings look very realistic, showing precise details including the exact architecture, scale, style, and color!

This is pretty cool!

I actually came across Edushi website one or two years ago, but at the time, only the area around downtown Shanghai was mapped/drawn. The area where I live in the suburbs (some call “countryside”) was just a blank map showing only the roads, like what you see on MapQuest. But today, I found my neighborhood completely mapped and drawn! In fact, my apartment building on the map looks exactly the same as the real building!

My Earthly Cyber Home (Is that an oxymoron?!)

The map below shows my neighborhood. The circled building is where I’m blogging from right now! Wouldn’t that be bizarre if this was a real-time satellite feed and I’m able to see myself blogging through the windows?! 

Zooming in the map, the image below on the left shows my building. The photo on the right is an actual photo of the apartment building itself!

The only thing not quite right about this 3D map is that I don’t really see that much “green” in the real world. The pretty green patch to the right of my building—what looks to be a nice park next to a “blue” canal—in reality, is a patch of landfill of every color but green next to a mosquito-infested swamp. I like the cyber version of my home better.

Anyway, these 3D maps just blow my mind away. Can you imagine the people behind this project creating computer 3D replicas of every single inch of Shanghai? And not just Shanghai, but all the big cities in China?? This is amazing!

Here below are a few highlights as part of your cyber sight-seeing trip to China.

The Forbidden Palace (Beijing)

Tiananmen Square (Beijing)

Temple of Heaven (Beijing)

Olympic Stadium (Beijing)

Yu Garden / Old Town (Shanghai)

Oriental Pearl Tower & World Financial Center (Shanghai)

People Square (Shanghai)