What is special about the area 30 km west of Beijing?
A geocaching map of the Beijing area, shows an unusual pattern:
Almost all the geocache sites (green circles) are clustered in an area 30 km or so to the west of Beijing, with almost no sites in the capital itself or other surrounding territory.
What is so special, either from a native or tourist perspective, about this area that would cause this phenomenon?
Best Answer
This just looks to be a problem with the labels of the base map used by that geocaching site. If you look at other online mapping services (Google Maps, Bing Maps), they clearly show central Beijing located near the center of the large beltway highway shown in your screenshot. For example, in your screenshot you can see the thin, squared-off moats surrounding the Forbidden City about 2 km east of the "Xicheng" label.
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What is Beijing known for?
The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai.What mountain range is near Beijing China?
Beijing is a municipality located in North China at the northern tip of the North China Plain, near the meeting point of the Xishan and Yanshan mountain ranges. The city itself lies on flat land (elevation 20 to 60 m (66 to 200 ft)) that opens to the east and south.Where are mountains near Beijing?
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Beijing is surrounded by the Yanshan Mountains on the west, north and east while the small alluvial plain of the Yongding River lies to its southeast. Beijing faces the Bohai Sea, and the area is also called the Beijing Bay.Usain Bolt Breaks 3 World Records | Beijing 2008 Olympics
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Answer 2
This most probably has to do with the obfuscation of the geographic coordinates mandated in China, where apparently random offsets are added to them.
See more details here.
There are open-source, freely available de-obfuscators available on github, which can be integrated with OpenLayers, leaflet, etc. -- I have used them ;-) I say you better report it as a bug to that geocaching site.
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