Our Story

The idea for LingoMap, previously called Lost Laowai, came to Jason Stine in 2016 when he realized foreigners who could not read Chinese still didn't have any good bilingual map app to use in China.

He started development on version 1 of the software in November 2016 and then released it as a website app at the end of March 2017. Version 1 received hundreds of positive comments from foreigners all over China, as well as was reported on by local newspapers. However, version 1 was really more a proof of concept and not very user friendly, so he taught himself how to turn the web app into Android and iOS webview apps that were greatly improved - version 2.

Moment in history - see the old webpage for Lost Laowai: https://lostlaowai.wixsite.com/home

Version 2, released in the fall of 2018, was very successful and got many downloads. A passionate user base began following and supporting the app. However, after some time the app began having technical problems Jason was unable to fix, and a new solution was needed.

The app had to be redone again. Work began on this version (3) in 2019 as modern TypeScript React Native Android and iOS apps. Although it inherits some code from the previous versions, most of it was completely rewritten to be what you are using now.

Credits

LingoMap was created by Jason Stine (展昭) with generously volunteered help from:

- Kevin Mulligan (Map Information)

- Daniel Daugherty (Map Information)

- Peter Code (Appearance and Styling)

- Rinelle Mudray (Social Media)

- Sissie Wu (Design Ideas)

- Erik (Map Information Updates)

- Huangqiao 黄巧 (Map Information Updates)

A special thanks goes to fiverr.com graphic designer pujovski for creating the beautifully simple and iconic LingoMap icon and logo!

The app uses icons from www.flaticon.com created by the following flaticon authors, separated by commas in no particular order: pixel-perfect, catalin-fertu, freepik, becris, those-icons, smashicons, google, roundicons, good-ware, itim2101, geotatah, nhor-phai, bqlqn, iconixar, kiranshastry, mavadee

And finally a special shoutout to the countless LingoMap app users who have supported the project for so many years - thank you!

Please considering supporting us by going to the Support Us page!