Munich Orientation Convention in Guangzhou    

               Agent for Guangdong province: Harald Penkert                         中文                 other cities

Guangzhou has the option to be world's first city that has realized an international orientation standard, an idea from a Munichian inventor to simplify and harmonize worldwide all orientation means: signage, cartography, navigation devices and verbal expressions. 

Within this city, it is (will be) possible to find any target with easy brain work, that means 

- without maps, - without names,
- without illogical numbers  - without arrows
- without floor marks  - without square grids 
- without colors - without compass or other navigation devices

Buildings, crossings, stop points, bridges etc. have logical addresses like

              Jinan University  StatusQuo© GGZU   m3 r95

              Guangzhou bridge                            m3:27 r57

              Hanxi Changlong station                    m5:20 r170 


which are easy to understand if you associate the city with a clock as follows:

An outstanding point as e. g. the Sun Yat-sen memorial hall was (will be) defined as a pole m0. Around this pole, the horizon is divided in 12 "horizon hours"     m1  to  m12   , whereas m12 points to north. 

This divides the city as a cake in 12 imaginary sectors.

 

The sectors are divided in horizon minutes. These are not angles but DISTANCES to the horizon hour, in steps of approx one "block of houses" or 100 meters. 

    Example      m3:25           ( read   "emm three point 25"   or   "emm three 25" ). 

This is a line situated in a distance of 25 x 100m from the horizon hour m3, which points to sunrise. 

The convention for horizon minutes is very easy:       

              the greater, the later.

Considering the distance to m0 as r = radius also in steps of blocks of houses, logical position codes for targets, buildings, crossings etc. come into existence, e. g. as shown on the picture: 

        crossing   m5:15 r45

In simple words:

"r" is a numbering starting FROM m0

"m" is a north-direction-based numbering AROUND m0  

and this simple methode covers a gigantic market gap: 

      l o g i c a l   and easy understandable  p o s i t i o n   codes.

Natural Cartography©: 

a map with such a polar grid has innovative characteritics, see www.volksnav.com/map . Please be aware about the fact that if the target isn't on map, with the help of the logical position code it's possible to imagine where it is situated !! 

Interesting details: 

- the search grid contains quadrangules similar to the conventional ones. The picture above shows a white quadrangule with the dimensions 2,5 km x 2,5 km. The bended sides let know in which direction the urban pole is situated, even if the centre isn't on map. 

- the width of the sector is half the radius !! Example: m5:25 r50, m5:50 r100 etc..

- the middle of the sector is radius/4. Example: m5:25 r100

.

Other logical addresses  (clockwise):

Yuexiu Hill stadium  m12:1  r4
TV tower  m12:4  r13
Bayun airport  m12:40  r290
Eastern train station  m2:18  r75
labyrint  m2:50  r163
Garden hotel  m3  r28
Guangzhou book center  m3  r65
Sports center  m3  r70
Olympic Sports centre  m3:20  r197
Conference & Exhibition Center  m3:50  r125
Ersha island  m4  r60
Zhongshan university  m4:25  r60
Haizhu square  m6  r27
White Swan hotel  m7  r44
Culture park  m7:4  r36
Chen clan temple  m8:2   r24
Guangzhou train station  m11   r19
China hotel  m11:3  r14

Example for station codes:

Signage:

StatusQuo© addresses will be integrated within the existing signage, see www.volksnav.com/lollipop, or be indicated on so-called Orientators©, the signage of the future.

Vertical Pointing©: additional to the position information, a round symbol called center or pole pointer will be placed on their periphery to allow to detect the direction m0  according to the following conventions: 

if the pointer is placed on top       (f12) m0 will be in front of you  (f12)
  on bottom    (f6)   behind      (f6)
  right hand    (f3)   right hand  (f3)

etc. Acc. to the same convention, a square symbol points to north = m12.  The picture reveils: m12 is behind, the pole is right hand 

            Orientator© 

 

Navigation / VolksNav©:

The local navigation with the help of such codes is called VolksNav©. As proceeded today with house numbers, VolksNav© is nothing else than the major/minor comparison between "r" and "m" values: 

Simply proceed according to 1 -2 -3 : 

1

Positioning

 

 

Turn your body until m0 will be BEHIND. In this position, 

ahead will be outwards
right hand " to later (clockwise)
left hand " to earlier

etc. 

Beginners have to turn physically, after some exercises anyone will be able to do this by his imagination power. In case you look at above shown Orientator©, you'd have to turn to left, correct? 

2

r-comparison

 

Ask yourself:         

must I move inwards or outwards? 

 ( = is the target radius greater or smaller than the actual one?)

3

m-comparison

 

Ask yourself:      

must I move to “later” (clockwise) or to earlier?  

( = is the target m later or earlier than the actual one?)

 

Let's see an example: 

Your target is:                   Guangzhou bridge  m3:27 r57       

If you've lost orientation on named crossing      m5:15 r45, 

so you must go

- outwards (radius r95 is more than actual r45 )

and

- to "earlier" (counterclockwise)   ( m3 is "earlier"  than the actual m5 )

This may seem to be unfamiliar, but the orientation based on cardinal points is used for some thousand years and imaginary clocks are used by soldiers, boy scouts, pilots, blind people etc. for more than 100 years. On a real situation, VolksNav© can be learned within few minutes, that means, faster than the most seeking times. 

Vision:

Mobile applications: Very soon also navigation devices and mobile phones will indicate such logical position codes and cardinal points , see www.volksnav.com/mobile

You're invited to test the program for pocketPC/smartphone with/without GPS by means of a download from www.volksnav.com

 

Natural World Co-ordinates: the same addressing methode will soon also be used 

- indoor www.volksnav.com/deutschesmuseum     www.volksnav.com/airportMUC 

and 

- within the whole globe, see  www.watchrose.com. Acc. to this, the international City Code of Guangzhou  is 

           WatchRose© m2:660  r89 30  

What is this good for? Just comparing the codes for example of Guangzhou and  

        Zhongshan  WatchRose©  m2:700  r89 85 

it is possible to evaluate that 

- the position of  Guangzhou is "earlier" and closer to Munich than Zhongshan, more exactly

    :700 - :660 = 40 km earlier

    r8985 - r8930 = 55 km closer

- the distance between both locations, the hipotenuse, will be between 55 and 55+40 km. 

- for advanced users:

the egocentrical direction   Guangzhou / Zhongshan  (to later/to outside) is QuoVides(R) 5, see www.quovides.com