***********************************************************
The Lands Department's Survey and Mapping Office has released the Hong Kong Guide 2007 (Photomap Edition) for sale. The photomap edition, first published in 2004, has been widely welcomed by readers.
The new edition has 147 pages each of photomaps and large-scale conventional line maps. Readers can have a bird's-eye view of the landscape from the photomap and then get detailed geographic information from the corresponding conventional line map.
In the production of the photomap edition, the Survey and Mapping Office has included aerial photos of various districts. The photos have been delicately adjusted with the assistance of computers. To facilitate reading of the photomaps, roads hidden by buildings and trees are resurfaced through computerised techniques. Major districts, roads in urban areas, paths in suburban areas and scenic trails are labelled so readers can easily identify various locations.
The new edition also contains comprehensive public transport information and simplified indexes of about 10,000 names of places, streets, major estates and buildings.
The Survey and Mapping Office, as it did last year, has compiled a separate book entitled "Names of Hong Kong Places, Streets and Buildings" which has 208 pages with more than 40,000 names of places, streets, housing estates, buildings, community facilities and parks, together with their grid references on the guidebook. The name book is available in bundle with the Hong Kong Guide 2007. Readers can purchase the Hong Kong Guide 2007 without the name book or the Bundle Version with the name book.
Adding to the inclusion of bus stops locations on the line maps last year, grid references of bus and green minibus terminuses have also, for the first time, been included in the index for readers' convenience. Feature articles on wetland excursion, Mai Po walk and bird watching in Hong Kong, plus photographs provided by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, have made the guidebook more interesting.
The 416-page Hong Kong Guide 2007 (Photomap Edition) and its Bundle Version are available for sale at all Survey and Mapping Office map sales counters at $100 and $120 respectively. Details of the counters can be browsed at http://www.landsd.gov.hk/mapping/en/pro&ser/outlet.htm. The new guidebook and its Bundle Version will also be available at six post offices (General Post Office, Kowloon Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok, Kwun Tong and Tuen Mun Central), some bookstores and online Government Bookstore of ESDlife at http://bookstore.esdlife.com/eng.
For enquiry, please call 2231 3187 or 2780 0981.
Ends/Monday, February 26, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:37
NNNN