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Hong Kong and Macau mapping data issue

I have encountered a serious issue with the Hong Kong and Macau mapping data used by the service. I have noticed that the coordinates of Hong Kong and Macau are shifted to match the mainland China map, which causes everything to be off position. This affects the accuracy and usability of the maps in these regions.

Mainland China different datum called GCJ-02 which introduces random offsets to the coordinates. This causes the maps of China to be misaligned with the GPS coordinates (WGS-84) by up to 1000 meters. However, Hong Kong and Macau do not use GCJ-02, but WGS-84, so the offsets should not apply there. It seems that Bing Maps has wrongly applied the same shifting algorithm to Hong Kong and Macau, causing all of their locations to be shifted to the wrong location when viewed in aerial mode.

You can see an example of the misalignment here; the railway line does not match the arial photo location:

Image

Hi Kit!

I'm Jen, and I'd be happy to help you out with this issue.

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue. I'm afraid this community is just a user-to-user support forum and we don't work for Microsoft. I would suggest submitting feedback to the Bing Team using the Bing feedback option. Please scroll down to the bottom of the Bing Maps page > Click on Feedback and complete the feedback form stating your suggestion. Thank you for your understanding.

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be glad to assist you further.

Best Regards!
Jen :)

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Thanks I sent a support request via another channel.

They should really provide a method for to escalate an issue.

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This is currently expected behavior. As you note China requires a particular projection be used for Mainland China map data. Rather than have Hong Kong and Macau be misaligned at the border, all contiguous China data is currently shifted into the same projection. As you note, this means it will not align with aerial imagery, so showing aerial imagery with label overlay is not recommended anywhere in China.

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If I now open Family Safety on my phone that part of Microsoft 365, it would report a wrong location on the overview with or without satellite imagery because it would report the misaligned location at the API level returning the incorrect approximated address.

It's completely unusable, this is disappointing.

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Hi Kit,

As an M365 customer you can report this issue to the Office Team but it is not a direct Maps issue as the map is working as designed. The co-ordinate returned from the phone should be subject to the same offset and the on phone application should do that translation.

Sincerely,

IoTGirl

Without ME it's just "AWESO" - Barney Stinson

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Last updated April 12, 2025 Views 446 Applies to: