Some people collect stamps, others coins. Less common is the compulsion shared by Yang Lang and Gu Xiang -- they’re both just mad about maps.

Yang Lang is vice-president of the SEEC Media Group Limited. His 20-year background in the media nurtured a passion whose seeds were sown at boyhood -- that of cartography. Yang has written and published 500 or more articles on his “Finding Maps” blog. Enthusiastic responses to them help chalk up the most daily hits of any other blog in China. It seems Yang’s is no isolated case of cartographic craziness.

Yang’s ownership and consistent study of thousands of maps have given him the well-deserved reputation of ultimate specialist in the field. Prior to establishing his blog in 2004, his articles on maps were published in specialist magazines. His readership has since considerably expanded. Yang currently has two “Map Finding” blogs. One is devoted to his articles; the other is a combination of topographic pictures and media-related map information. Yang is a chief consultant for the domestic map media.

Why Maps?

Yang’s fascination with maps began as a schoolboy. After graduating in the 1970s, his mania grew to encompass those of a specifically military nature, due to his time at the Kunming provincial military command. In the early 1980s, Yang became a reporter on the China Youth Daily. In the course of his reportage he amassed tourist maps from all over the country. But his destiny as a compulsive map collector was actually sealed by his father and brother. The former, who formerly worked for the World Bank, passed on to Yang the maps he accumulated during countless overseas business trips. Yang’s brother gave him the maps he had used during a trip around the US in 1989. Yang’s collection has since known no bounds.

The scope of maps Yang daily scrutinizes ranges from those excavated from the Western Han Dynasty tombs at Mawangdui, to the more recent Battle of Pinxinguan Pass plan of attack. Somewhere in-between are the very first map of Europe of 500 years ago and that of US military encampments during the Korean War. His collection also includes a Japanese-made Map of Northern China, which bears notes of the exact date on which each city was invaded. The mind boggles as to the identity of this meticulous recorder.

Yang’s best finds have been at the Baoguosi and Panjiayuan markets, where he arrives at the stroke of opening on each market day. He has narrowed down the serious map dealers in Beijing to five or six, all of whom know him well. He is the first person they contact when any of them come across a particularly old or unusual map. In return Yang sends them copies of his book, which contains all his published works. As he says, “Collectors need to help each other in order to feed their common compulsion.”

Yang also goes to auctions. He counts himself fortunate beyond reckoning to have snapped up, for a mere RMB 100, the Strategic Marching Map of China-Japan, which was charted in 1894. The essay he subsequently wrote on it -- History of Journalism Introduced by an Old Map-- appears in his book.

Cartographic Treasure

Thousand of maps, old and new, all valuable in their own way, are safely but democratically stashed at the bottom of Yang’s cabinet. In the same unceremonious pile that contains the tourist map from his days as rookie reporter on the China Youth Daily is also the 24-page set Provincial Maps of the Late Qing Dynasty, which is worth tens of thousands of RMB. Compiled during the Qing Tongzhi Period (1862-1875), it comprises a guide to administrative ownership in northeast China prior to the Treaty of Aigun between China and Russia. The only other record in existence is at the US Library of Congress. Yang paid RMB 30,000 for the set, and it is today worth quadruple that amount. But Yang would not sell it at any price. He and others similarly obsessed collect strictly according to the “Finders keepers” principle.

Military maps are undoubtedly predominant within Yang’s collection. He is at pains to explain that among existing maps from the Republican era (1912-1949) in Chinese history, those most artistically charted are Japanese. The first article in his newly published book, Beauty Met by Chance, is on a map of Yuntiandong created at the time of the Japanese occupation of Korea. It features the three shades of black, white and gray. Yang is almost reverent in his description of it: “Its artistic layout and contour lines eminently qualify it as a work of art.”

Yang’s map mania has deepened his knowledge of the history of civic administration as well as geography. His scope of interest includes the producers of maps, their specific intentions and the function of the maps they produce. His study of maps, many of which are considered national treasures, is his way of discovering the forces of history that create these perishable paper records.

The Babe behind BOBOMAP

Gu Xiang began collecting maps as a point of reference for places she had visited. In common with Yang Lang, she appreciates the concise form of expression that maps imbue. Her collection is mainly comprised of tourist maps of Beijing. Taken as a whole, they are a record of the phenomenal changes the capital has undergone over the past ten years. Although the graphic symbols on maps of Beijing have not changed since the 1970s, certain aspects, for example bus routes, have changed dramatically. There were only tens of bus lines in 1970s, whereas nowadays there are nearly 1,000.

Gu Xiang was formerly the youngest consultant at a global headhunting company. It was her particular strain of map mania that in 2003 compelled her to quit her quhigh-paying job and start Bobomap magazine.

“BOBO” is the accepted abbreviation for bourgeois bohemian -- a young upwardly mobile professional. Despite the abundance of media resources for urban professionals, prior to 2003 there was no magazine that included maps of the city. Gu Xiang was canny enough to spot this gap between tourist and ordinance survey maps, and bold enough to act on it. Bobomap’s wide-ranging, up-to-the-minute content and contemporary design live up to the originality of its name. The magazine’s carefully planned distribution among Beijing’s newest, most vibrant enterprises has made it an indispensable accessory within professional circles. Three years later, it has a circulation of 30,000.

Gu Xiang finds map collecting immeasurably rewarding. She derives immense pleasure from the broader picture of a particular location and its environs that maps paint. They are also an indication of the history and politics of a nation. International geopolitics is, after all, largely influenced by topography. The macro approach to map reading, therefore, can act as a guide to the political, historical and economic structure of the place in question.

From another point of view, maps and map drawing techniques are an art form. Gu Xiang’s most prized acquisition is an out-of-print reproduction of early 20th century Beijing in its original layout. It seemed appropriate to present this treasure to her grandma, who was born at about the same time as it was produced.

To the likes of Yang Lang and Gu Xiang, maps are historical sketches of changes and developments. They are, in a sense, pieces of a jigsaw that document the growth and progress of the whole country.