Earlier this week the Google Maps team announced that they have add Street View imagery for Hong Kong , Macau, and UNESCO World Heritage sites in Japan. Being a map enthusiast and a Street View enthusiast, I had to check it out for myself. And the first thing I saw when clicking on Street View for Hong Kong was this…

Don’t be mislead by the image above. The Street View imagery of Hong Kong is actually quite good. Take a look for yourself in the map below.

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Applications for Education
At first when I saw the Seven Eleven store in the Street View imagery I didn’t think much of it. However, after some thought I realized that showing students that Street View image could serve a couple of educational purposes. First, it’s a good example of economic globalization. Second, you could show students the image as a way to challenge their ideas of what Hong Kong looks like. I can almost hear students saying, “I didn’t think they had that over there.”