I blogged about self navigation in China in Part 3 of this post and introduced Amap.com (高德地图 – Android version here, iPhone version here). This is the Google map equivalent in China, and you should not leave for China without it (like Google Maps is a must have for worldwide travel apart from China (as Googles are not available in Mainland China now). Below are my experience of using it in China…
It has features very similar to Google Maps and have voice navigation if you drive, take public transport or walk – rather verbose and in great details including where ahead are speed and red light cameras. I used it while navigating a taxi driver in Hangzhou (no kidding, many taxi drivers in China cities do not know their way!), and when he also got his GPS on with Baidu map, I compared and consider the Amap considerably better in both performance and details. While Amap provides downloadable offline maps and navigation for many cities in China, I’ve to caution on using it as the offline version has less details. If your destination is not on the offline version, it may navigate you to somewhere nowhere near your desired destination. Hence, you got to check it along the way, or it’s still better to use the online version if you can afford the data charges (via router or SIM card). As with any GPS navigation which should get you near to your destination, but once when near to it, common sense and road signs are essential. And of course, the best and ultimate confirmation would be to ask the people there (Policeman, caretakers, newsagents, supermarkets, bystanders, anyone- 路在口边!).