These are pretty, but they are not accurate. These are not just inaccuracies due to omission, either; there are innumerable added elements that don't actually exist.
The inaccuracies are actually very interesting since I can't fathom why the creators think it's OK. The high level of detail on a map suggests accuracy, which is deceptive. It's one thing to add obvious design elements outside of the context of the information, but in this case they've actually decided to be creative with the information itself.
I spent some time in Hangzhou (near Shanghai) last year, and remember asking around about online maps -- none of the usual suspects like Google had anything for China at the time. Everyone pointed me at the edushi.com (which means "e-city" in Mandarin) and it truly amazed me the first time I saw it! It reminded me of the Sim City scenarios that were based around real cities.. All of the buildings are modeled quite accurately, even individual trees and small landscaping details are represented. I guess that's what happens when labour is cheap and there are lots of aspiring art students without many good job prospects. :)
(The company behind the maps, Aladdin Information Technology, is based in Hangzhou. I can't wait until they expand to non-Chinese cities around the world!)
Build spaceport: You do not have enough points to do that.
It is very impressive, although I would have liked to be able to rotate around the compass - but presumably they are using the fake 3d to keep load times down, especially given the potential for traffic spikes on the Chinese internet. Obviously there is some potential for painting over any underisarable information (no half-finished buildings here, everything is neat and shiny!), but there is also utility in the 'cartooned' abstraction. I wonder to what extent it was generated vs. hand-textured.
Also a good excuse to repost this: http://www.c3technologies.com/ (warning, noisy video autostart). Astounding working demo under 'Reference' menu.
The inaccuracies are actually very interesting since I can't fathom why the creators think it's OK. The high level of detail on a map suggests accuracy, which is deceptive. It's one thing to add obvious design elements outside of the context of the information, but in this case they've actually decided to be creative with the information itself.