Chinese Maps and Landscapes
The ancient Chinese created some of the earliest maps in the world. Most traditional ancient Chinese maps fall into two categories, either maps that are pictorial (shown from a more bird's eye view or human's eye view) with not as much attention to scale and accuracy or maps are very scientific, drawn in a grid scale. (http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/1997/07/msg00217.html) Because of the use of pictorial aspects in the maps, many ancient Chinese maps seem to be more like landscape painting than maps to the Western eye. They reflect a different style of visual expression than the Western maps. They are different in terms of the use of symbols, use of color, the media used, the format used and most striking, of course, the pictorial aspect. It wasn't until the late 1800s that cartography began to be considered separate from landscape painting. This occurred around the time that Western examples of maps began to be an influence (www.loc.gov.lcib/0312/maps.html).
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