Fun thing to keep in mind when traveling in mainland China: maps for use outside China are shifted by a few hundred meters, presumably in a lame attempt to confuse an invading army.
I have not run into this issue in China, perhaps this has changed since.
Re:Project Fi by Google
by Someone1234 on Wednesday April 22, 2015 @05:02PM
(#9423521)
> What's your experience with Google Maps at the free 2G speeds?
"Unpleasant." What I'd strongly recommend is to download the map using offline maps before you leave. If you wait for Google Maps to download the data over the 2G/free tier you'll be in for a very long (10+ minute) wait.
I did not do offline maps before I left, but mostly we were on tours so we didn't really need them. But if I was e.g. exploring a city or doing something on my own, you'd definitely want to do offline maps if you wanted to use Google Maps on their free tier.
Worth noting that not every country lets you offline a map. There's a list of countries you can offline a map for here: https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/2650347?hl=en
It's a long list, but there's some notable / surprising absences (e.g. Brazil, Spain).
I used TMO's free international 2G (with a 2013 Moto X) in Japan for two weeks. Maps was not a problem. It was slower then I was used to over 4G, but certainly fast enough to look up transit directions and search for places.
I was very satisfied and would gladly use them again. Having transit directions made spontaneous travel much easier.
What's your experience with Google Maps at the free 2G speeds? That would be my first question when it comes to travel.