Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Google Says Taiwan is a province

Google is appending "Taiwan Province" to its map products. Drop them a polite line to say this is wrong. It is US policy that Taiwan's status is undecided and Taiwan is not a province of anything.

UPDATE: The Report a problem page for MAPS. You'll probably have to use the box.

UPDATE: To explain why sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't, recall that in the ROC, municipalities are the equal of provinces. Hence you won't see it for Taichung, Taipei, Tainan, K-town, and New Taipei City. Google's usage is inconsistent and silly, because there could never be a "Taiwan Province, Taiwan" but only a Taiwan Province of the ROC or PRC. Stupid and unnecessary, they should just go with "Taiwan."

UPDATE: Haha. They identify Kinmen as "Fujian Province, Taiwan". T'aint no such animal.
_______________________
Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

4 comments:

Carlos said...

It looks like it's inconsistent - sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. But I've only seen it as "Taiwan Province, Taiwan"... which is a pretty pan-green way of putting it (maybe every island would be a province =p).

Don't license plates still say something like Taiwan Province?

Michael Turton said...

No, its consistent. Remember -- Taipei, Taichung, New Taipei City, Tainan, and Kaohsiung are not in "Taiwan Province" because they are municipalities and in the ROC system are equal to provinces.

Michael

Anonymous said...

It seems to depend on where you are located when you open Google Maps. From Sweden everything looks fine: e.g., Puli Township, Taiwan; Hengchun Township, Taiwan; Kinmen Airport, Kinmen and Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Taiwan is also in boldface when you zoom out, just like China, Japan, Philippines etc. How widespread is the problem? (Is it concentrated to viewers in TW itself??).

Carlos said...

That explains it, thanks.