Maps

of Taishan County

18 January 2005

Overview

There are a variety of maps useful in researching family in Taishan County.

Administrative maps can help identify where records of a more local nature may exist, such as trial briefs and land title deeds. Tourist maps should show the major roads and identify the attractions. Those attractions like temples and cemeteries may have useful records, and certainly do have useful inscriptions. Topographical maps will show mountains, rivers, valleys, towns and villages, which can suggest market towns, routes and neighbours, all vital clues to relevant records. Historical maps may help explain life in your ancestral village by the type of streams, roads, towns and villages recorded. Be careful of their details, as they owe more to dead-reckoning by missionaries, tourists and self-serving civil servants than to accurate surveys by professional cartographers.

If you can forward me scans of any historical maps, they will be included here.

There are further maps included with the book, "Brief History of Taishan" by Huang Gui Yun. They are not included here, as I have been asked to remove them, by an agent of the author.

Maps of various sorts can also be purchased from the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

Maps

Administrative	This map shows the counties of Guangdong Province lying in the Pearl River Delta, namely Yangchun, Yangjiang, Enping, Kaiping, Taishan, Xinhui, Doumen, Heshan, Gaoming, Gaoyao, Sihui, Qingyuan, Hua Xian, Sanshui, Nanhai, Shunde, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Panyu, Zengcheng, Dongguan, Bao'an, Huiyang and Boluo; as well as the provincial cities of Guangzhou, Jiangmen and Huizhou; and the special territories of Macau and Hong Kong. [79Kb]
	This county map shows the 28 municipalities that were current up until late 2001, namely the townships of Baisha, Beidou, Chixi, Chonglou, Dajiang, Doushan, Duanfen, Duhu, Fucheng, Gongyi, Guanghai, Haiqiao, Haiyan, Hengshan, Longwen, Nafu, Nanwan, Sanba, Sanhe, Shalan, Shangchuan, Shenjing, Shuibu, Sijiu, Taicheng, Tiantou, Wencun and Xiachuan, with Taicheng being the county capital. [11Kb]
Historical	This map of "Hoy-Sun" county was drawn by hand by Christian Missionaries in 1920, and shows towns, villages, rivers and railway lines. [514Kb]
Topographical	This extract from the topographical Pearl Delta Touring Map by Universal Publications, Hong Kong 1990s differs a little from the other maps. The boundary down the western gulf is the most obvious. Some of the details outside this extract are known to be wrong from personal experience, so be careful. [116Kb]
Tourist	This map shows the freeways being developed through Taishan County. [44 Kb]
	This map depicts the western gulf in a rather peculiar way, and has been borrowed from the China Taishan Web. [303 Kb]