Does anyone have any experience using Garmin or other GPS watches in Asia? I travel to China & Thailand frequently and am thinking about picking up a new watch. Curious to hear others experience using GPS watches there before I drop the cash on one.
I’ve never used one over there, or ever even been to Asia, but I’m pretty sure they have satellites.
It would work just like it does anywhere else in the world. Uses satellites to track location. Nothing land based.
I’ve used my Garmin in various parts of China and Seoul, South Korea, no problem.
I’ve never used one over there, or ever even been to Asia, but I’m pretty sure they have satellites.
Nope, satellites can’t reach that far. Only U.S. and, sometimes, Europe and Canada.
Thanks guys. Although I am not a professional astrologist, I do realize those satellite things live in outer space and the earth rotates on its axis :). However, when using the map over-lay in China, Google maps can get wonkey which is what prompted my question.
I’m willing to bet that’s due to a lack of quality map data and not necessarily the GPS.
I’ve run all over SE Asia while backpacking and my Garmin watch worked just fine. Your distance should be accurate but the data may not overlay on a map nicely.
I’ve never used one over there, or ever even been to Asia, but I’m pretty sure they have satellites.
Nope, satellites can’t reach that far. Only U.S. and, sometimes, Europe and Canada.
This is sarcasm?
yeah work well - have Garmin Forerunner 910xt and Garmin Edge 1000 . Have used them in NZ, all over Australia, Malaysia, Philippines havent had a problem - turn them on a day or so ahead of time and give them a chance to figure out what youve done - sometimes the devices will ask if you have moved 1000’s of miles - just say yes
I have used my Garmin in Beijing and Shanghai without any issues.
John
Your GPS tracking will be fine but maps might be a different issue. I had to buy a different TomTom to get maps of Taiwan.
My GPS worked fine on my visit to China and works fine in other Asian countries.
More importantly I am not sure if you can upload your GPS data to Strava in China. China blocks social media like Facebook and Twitter, not sure about Strava.
You don’t want to log into anything important from China anyway. In fact, take an old phone and an old computer on the trip. When done wipe the devices and never use them again. If you need e-mail, get a throwaway yahoo/gmail/Hotmail, and abandon it after the trip.
Dead serious. I do cyber security. Not just me, but all the rest of us in this business too, would do that. Someone I know just came back from China. He took an old shitty laptop with him with no important data on it. Never logged into anything important while there. And got rid of the laptop after returning.
You have to, when malware can be in the BIOS or the video card or network adapter firmware or even the USB controller. One could wipe the device, replace the storage (hard drive or SSD) even, and still not be entirely sure the device is clean.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Crazy how they can get into a computer system like that. Everyone who goes in and out knows their level of sophistication, but that’s just insane.