The current version of the Hong Kong MTR network diagram. They've used this new style since 2014 when the West Island Line opened. I'm glad they've completely revamped their design styles back then recognizing it's time for a new, modern map. This new version has fixed many of the problems I've mentioned about the previous version. I'll outline the many substantial improvements of this version:

- The lines are thinner, and the station points are more comfortably spaced such that all the labels are conspicuous.

- All angles are kept to the eight cardinal directions, i.e., horizontal, vertical, or 45-degrees.

- The lines have the number of bends reduced, and the bends are also widened a lot compared to the previous version.

- They've rightly decided to do away with the confusing "different transfer station label depending on the transfer direction" style and started using a uniform style of putting a connecting line with different colors for all transfers, no matter what type. However, I don't like these new transfer shapes which look like circles welded to each other, I'd rather have a simpler rounded rectangle instead to represent these transfers.

- The direction of the branch line to LOHAS Park is easier to see, although some improvements could still be made.

- Most importantly, the biggest noticeable change is, the landforms are much cleaner in this version, no unnecessary details.

In contrast to the countless problems of the previous design, this new redesign seems like a refresher. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is aware of the problems of previous designs, they seem to have done the right thing of ditching the previous design in favor of a completely new, revamped one. The previous one was never going to hold up to the rapid pace of expansions the network underwent, anyway, so I also feel they should have done this much earlier. They've even decided to write a press release about this here.

I've read their article after seeing this diagram and can agree with most of the points they have made regarding the design considerations the map deserves. However, there are still a number of things which could still be improved about this map, such as:

* Spacing and positioning of stations around the original city center is still inconsistent. Understandably, this may have been done to tout the perfect circle shape of Line 2, but this still results in significant geographical inconsistencies, such as a somewhat crooked Line 1. It might be a little better if Line 2 was slightly stretched horizontally (but still retain its circular arcs) which would make it more accurate to the actual geography. (Upon measurement, I found that the Line 2's loop has a horizontal diameter nearly twice the vertical diameter.)

* I'm not a fan of making the Line 2 thicker than the others just to show off the importance of this line. Just because it's the busiest line, doesn't mean we should make it look like the center of the universe and downplay all the other important lines.

* Transfer points are still hiding station numbers - although with their new design, there is still enough space without much adjustments to incorporate the same non-transfer station number label design into the transfer stations.

* The line markers still somewhat inherit the problems of the previous diagram - there are three lines labelled "G" and two labelled "S" - providing no information about what the line is in the map itself. If they can put "GJ" inside the marker for Gyeongui-Jungang Line, why can't they put "GC" for Gyeongchun Line?

* The design styles of some lines such as with a white trace which may be either solid or dotted could understandably be used to try to categorize the lines with different styles, but this particular style, for me, seems a bit too overcomplicated and unnecessary.

Overall, while this design still has plenty of issues, it's a much-improved version of the complex rapid transit network of Seoul that was needed after 40 years. I see a lot of potential in how this map could be further improved, but am overall impressed by the long-awaited efforts the designers have finally decided to put into improving the map design.

However, there's one design I found that's even better than this one, and interestingly, it's released by Korail, South Korea's national rail company.

This is the official version of the transit network in the Seoul Metropolitan Region, released by Korail. (Hmm, wonder why we can't just have this version plastered on the walls of every single station and train in the system? Although at least it is in some of the trains I've taken myself.) Below is the map of the Busan network, although the style is noticeably different. I should say, this map of the Seoul network is one of the cleanest rapid transit diagrams I've ever seen not just of Seoul, but of rapid transit networks around the world. The designer (Is that one of those ones I've followed? Because this design has one that reminds me of him...) has used smooth curves, contrasting line thickness, and clear station labels, emphasized transfer points and boldened labels (which is what inspired one of my own design choices for Seoul), and placed clear terminus labels. There's no debating that this design beats the other two of this network I've investigated in a landslide, and I could stare at this design all day to carefully look at how immaculate it is. This design should set a shining example of how one should design a rapid transit network diagram, and shows how it is entirely possible for an official agency to adopt such a design.

Just a few words about the Busan network. I do appreciate that this design uses smooth curves like the Seoul one, but I still feel that this design has some points that could be improved. The use of the uniquely Korean feature of a "samtaegeuk" that's been used (and apparently still is) to mark transfer points in older subway maps makes it feel slightly outdated, especially if the colors have nothing to do with the lines that connect it. Also, if it was possible to have the labels facing the right way in the Seoul map, why not here, where we still need to rotate every label 45 degrees?

This particular network doesn't have many 45-degree angles, because that's just the way Beijing's subway network is on the map - full of horizontal and vertical, but not many diagonal lines. Anyway, I'd rather stick to using more and longer straight lines.

There are several peculiarities with the Beijing network I find interesting relative to other Chinese metros. When it comes to the construction and expansion of Beijing's vast subway network, it is known for opening lines in phases and leaving stations (especially transfers) unopened, resulting in broken or incomplete lines. Line 17 is the latest example of a broken line that resulted from delays in construction in the middle section. I can see how well the line 17 will fit within my design when the middle section opens, which is expected next year. Also, for a network with so many lines and for a large capital city, line 3 is still missing as it has been for several decades now, and there's a complicated story behind this. Although, that may be about to finally change this year.

Many stations, which I've marked with a dotted circle, are closed for various reasons, such as construction delays for those stations or transfers, or the necessity to improve Beijing's aging subway lines, especially for Line 1 at Pingguoyuan, which has already been closed for some time now. The latest version, which I've updated in December 2023, includes some newly opened extensions. The latest extensions have made Beijing now take first place in total metro system length in one city, exceeding 800 km. (Sorry Shanghai, Beijing just beat you at that.)

South Korea's next largest city, Busan, has lots of coasts, mountains, beaches, and is home to one of the busiest seaports, but just as importantly, it has a metro system of its own. This place is a good place to visit if you like visiting seaside temples and seeing and driving through double-deck bridges across the sea. This metro system might not seem like the most impressive, but it is quite a big network for a city of three and a half million people, with a total of 108 stations in the four lines of the metro, without counting interchanges. That's more stations than my home city Hong Kong has (even as of now, Hong Kong is still one short of a hundred) with half the population! The fact that they consistently space stations close together is part of it. Looking just from this map, you could tell that the coverage of the Busan area is extensive, and South Koreans like to build very long lines, just like they've done in Seoul. The hardest part of this map, not so much of a challenge, was choosing a good geometry to deal with the very long runs of consecutive stations in some parts of the long lines, and this is the closest I could achieve while staying true to the geography of the network. And of course, being another South Korean subway network, I decided to use the same style that I used for the Seoul map.

Did you know: Chengdu Metro is home to a very rare example of a cross-platform transfer between a subway line and a high-speed railway line at Xipu station, which is located at the northern terminus of Line 2.

This city's metro network was designed in such a way that it enabled me to use very long straight line segments on many of the lines, such as 1, 4, and 10 which have no bends at all except for some very short branches. This is the beauty of this network which relies on radial trunk routes like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and circumferential lines like 7 and 9, as well as express lines like 17, 18, and 19 to get passengers across the city in whichever direction they wish to go towards.

One feature I would like to highlight is that Lines 18 and 19, the two lines that take you to Tianfu Airport on the far southeastern corner of the city, are designed with the same style as I initially proposed in Guangzhou Line 18 to tell you that these are express lines. Also, the larger spacing between Tianfu Station and Sancha is intentional as it represents the very long tunnel running under the massive mountain range separating the city from Tianfu Airport.

By the way, I apologize if some English station names are too hard to read - but that's the only way to fit in a massive station name such that they don't collide with other elements or force lines to widen out and make the diagram inconsistent. I mean, how am I supposed to remember "Chengdu University of TCM & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital"?

Welcome to Chongqing, my next stop in China in my collage of metro systems. Someone who knows a little bit about, or has traveled to Chongqing, should be able to identify a few things it is famous for. Among a few of its things are hotpot, Szechuan cuisine, its mountainous terrain, and its Three Gorges. It is, as you see on this map, where two rivers meet, one being the famous and China's longest Yangtze river.

Besides the fame of the city, even its metro system itself has a few oddities it is famous for. First, the metro station tunneling through an apartment building, which for that itself has become a tourist hotspot. Of course, it's Liziba on Line 2. Second, the metro station on Line 6, Caojiawan, built in the middle of nowhere, a barren wasteland, although that has changed significantly as there is now comprehensive development in the area surrounding it. One more thing, this city has opened China's deepest underground metro station, Hongyancun (Lines 5 and 9) with a depth of 116 meters, or about 39 floors! These stations are in their own right worth exploring.

Even this diagram has some unique characteristics I would like to point out. This diagram is the first I have made in this collage that is oriented in a portrait orientation, that is the map is taller than it is wide. One reason is because the core part of the city is situated between two massive mountain ranges running north-south, making it a large urban valley, so there are more and longer vertical lines than horizontal. Also, while other Chinese cities have loop lines that are given a number, I put the mark "0" for this line because this line is also known as "Line 0" (yes, zero), and even the official code "CRT0" has the meaning of "Line 0". Another newer feature I've added is express and through train services on this map represented by thinner lines and dots representing where express trains stop. The unique "4-0-5" label is my unique way of labelling the through train express that runs along parts of Line 4, the loop line, and Line 5.

Also, unlike other Chinese cities I've looked at, the metro system itself has many bends on its lines. While this map might not be the most complex Chinese metro network I've drawn so far, the real challenge in producing this diagram was that adhering to the actual network geometry and drawing nice line shapes had significant tradeoffs. I had to alter the geometry of the network significantly in my diagram to reduce the number of bends in my lines. The result: Although the spacing on the first two stations Line 18 looks much wider than it really is, this is the most optimal I could do to make sure other lines, like Line 1 and the Loop Line, look good, and station spacing remains consistent in most of the network. Also, I've made some station spacings wider than normal to show the large distance between two stations that lie on opposite sides of a large mountain range.

As a final joke: Who would have anticipated that my loop line looks exactly like a file folder in both shape and color?

Notice something unique about a few of my lines? That's right, lines 18 and 22 of this network are drawn with wider curves and a unique style of a highlighted trace. This lets you know that these are express, high-speed subway lines. They're very different from a line like 2, 8, or even 21. Also, while I typically try to maintain a consistent spacing between stations, the second southernmost station (Hengli) of line 18 being placed closer to the southern terminus (Wanqingsha) than the third station (Panyu Square) is an intentional choice because the station gap between Hengli and Wanqingsha is about 8 km while the gap between Panyu Square and Hengli is a whopping 25 km.

This map is also different from other Chinese cities in the way that it's a network of two cities, and in this case, the subway lines of both cities are closely interlinked with each other. For instance, there is a station which involves a complicated triple-island cross-platform transfer system between Guangzhou Line 7 and Foshan Line 3 which intercross each other here. This shows that both systems are closely connected with each other, so it is essential in this case to include both cities within the same diagram, which not everyone seems to have done on the internet.

The latest update in December 2023 includes newly opened extensions of lines 5 and 7 and the improvement of some lines for better consistency.

This is the second time I've made a future map of a network. This diagram was a bigger challenge than the Hong Kong/Shenzhen future diagram because the addition of lines 10, 11, 12, and 13 passing through the city center makes the network much denser. A massive first-tier city needs to add more capacity to its downtown network, which sometimes does get extremely crowded. In particular, the biggest challenge was fitting the lines and stations where they intersect without transfer or with indirect transfer, which was even harder than if these lines had direct transfers. This was harder because I had to figure out how to fit more text into a smaller space, including by widening out some of the lines in a way that it fits the labels well enough to be readable.

The Hangzhou metro is only just over a decade young, but has grown so complex. This map was drawn just after the Asian Games ended in this city. One interesting thing about this particular network is how many cross-platform transfers there are in this system - I know at least 10 stations in this network with this feature, which I found out by searching for this on Wikipedia. This includes two different pairs of cross-platform transfers (can you spot them?), which is a thing that also defines Hong Kong's MTR network. Another interesting thing is that the lines in the Hangzhou network are colored in a rainbow according to the number. The first 7 lines (1-7) are colored according to the ROYGBIV colors, the next 7 (8-14) a darker shade of these colors, the next 7 (15-21) a lighter shade of these colors, and so on. This feature is why I like to call this network "The Rainbow Metro".

Tip for others who want to go about drawing a complex network map: Starting from a dense city center and working your way outwards towards less dense or complex areas is a good way to get started.

The Shenzhen Metro and Hong Kong MTR network, representing where I'm from. Having drawn so many versions of this network for over a decade to cater to my obsession of the transit network in Hong Kong, I had lots of experience that would be transferred to this latest design, and over time slowly developed the design principles that make a good transit diagram. As many straight lines as possible, as few bends as possible, and kept to no more than four orientations is the best design choice.

One example I'd like to mention and emphasize is the fact that where Shenzhen's Lines 4 and 6 intersect, the map shows it intersects three times, including twice without interchange, but I've made it so that on my diagram, they only intersect once. This allows the lines to be much straighter, unlike some designs I've seen including the official ones, which force the lines to cross according to the real-world geometry. The point is, don't try to force your diagram to adhere to the real-world topology if it makes your design look ugly. Also, the next time an extension opens, the map might not look the same as this, as I won't just force the new lines into the original version.

As of November 2023, I've updated my map so that connections to high speed railway stations or airports are displayed. I've used the airport icon before, but I newly drew the China Railway icon while modifying this map. I've also straightened out some lines to adhere more to my design principles.

This is my attempt at creating a future version of the Hong Kong/Shenzhen rapid transit diagram including all the lines under construction. This is what I mean by planning ahead for the future, because just like the planners who design the rapid transit network of the future, I also need to plan ahead as to what my diagram will look like in some years' time. I took on this challenge seeing this as a very complex network to draw with the sheer scale of extensions being planned for the future. It's so incomprehensibly complex that it at one point crashed my drawing program due to memory issues.

Just by looking at this, one can comprehend how complex the Shenzhen network will become. In particular, I've always thought it would be impossible to make line 15 an almost rectangular shape (barring the curve towards the Xili high-speed railway station), 20 a straight line segment heading southeast from the airport towards the city center, or 22 a line that smoothly travels across the labyrinth of lines in the southern part. This result was achieved after multiple iterations of the diagram and a lot of time spent contemplating the ideal geometry of the lines, because I've had ugly results in previous attempts at drawing these lines. The effort is paying off in the way that it shows how my lines cohesively intercross each other.

As a matter of fact, a few months before, I had already done a future version of the map at the time which included only the currently running lines plus line 13 and extensions of existing lines. At that time, I had already completed the challenging (but very doable) task of making line 13 a perfectly straight vertical line. That last version of the map had taken me a lot of time as well, but it was a big step towards creating this newer version which I didn't have to start over on again and spend unnecessary hours repeating what I did before.

Overall, I am very much enjoying the results of my work with this map as there are many purposes to this part of my project: To demonstrate that even for an extremely complex network, I can transform the network into a diagram where the lines perfectly fit together; to show that I can plan ahead for the future by executing the actual drawing rather than just imagining it; to help me grasp the complexity of the upcoming Shenzhen Metro network; and to use this diagram as a reference for a future version of this network that I could use to go even further ahead.

Here I finally get to showcase my drawing of the world's oldest underground railway transit system, and that is none other than the London Underground. With over one and a half centuries of history, this complex and comprehensive transit system has served its purpose throughout its history. The transit network is a core feature of the city to Londoners as well as to anyone travelling this world city.

Of course, accompanying the transit system itself is its iconic diagram, known to us as the "Tube map". The very idea of drawing schematic diagrams for an underground railway network was pioneered by a man named Harry Beck who aimed to simplify the visualisation of our railway networks. The original problem is that drawing a geographically accurate map of the railway network would have a bunch of stations squeezed into one tiny centre while the outward lines would have stations spaced too far apart. Beck solved this with a design such that diagrams are drawn with straight lines bending at 45-degree angles and stations marked a consistent distance apart on the diagram. This design style has been the inspiration for how we visualize railway and rapid transit maps everywhere around the world. Throughout its existence, the Tube map has been a masterpiece in both form and function, and you'll find its design on souvenir items like tote bags and mugs, and even abstract art based on the very design of the Tube map.

Much like how Harry Beck faced the very original challenge of simplifying the map of London's railway system, when I did this diagram, I faced very significant challenges in drawing my own diagram that can be standardised to other cities in this collage. With the integration of underground, overground, and other railway services like the new commuter Elizabeth line as well as Docklands Light Railway and tram services, but more importantly the complexity of the lines themselves, it was very tough choosing an ideal geometry for the lines such that they interweave each other cohesively.

Another point which I should make here is the way I have incorporated unique design choices into this diagram while maintaining a standardised overall format. The easiest and most standardised design choice is, of course, the underground lines for which I use standard thickness lines used for a vast majority of lines in other diagrams. Next is the London Overground lines, which use a slightly thinner line thickness, and is accompanied with a thin white trace to mimic the traditional style of how the overground lines are represented in most diagrams. However, news has come out this year that new colours and names for each of the six overground services have been introduced and are scheduled to be rolled out in the fall, so I've decided to incorporate these colours ahead of time to distinguish the six different lines. The Elizabeth Line (also known as Crossrail) is drawn with a style I use for high-speed commuter lines as in other diagrams, as this is a higher-speed commuter line. For the DLR and Tram services, I use even thinner lines as a result of their closer station spacing and lower capacity, although this is not at all a new style.

To achieve the effect for the Thames river, this has been done with two effects for paths: One is of course the Corners effect which rounds corners that I've utilized throughout the rest of the diagram for all the lines to smooth curves. A newer one is the Power Stroke effect, which allows control of the stroke thickness at different points. That is to achieve the effect of the Thames river becoming wider travelling downstream.

Overall, doing my own rendition of a masterpiece with a more standard, universal format has been an endeavour requiring significant effort that I believe has achieved good results.

This Paris metropolitan area, or Île-de-France, metro, tram, and commuter rail network is hands down one of the most complex and time-consuming ones I've done so far. I've spent a great deal of my time trying to figure out the most optimal geometry of the network. Fitting the circumferential lines around Paris like 2, 6, T3a, and T3b into a nearly octagonal shape captures well the roles of these lines. Overall, the way I've spaced out the lines and stations in the central metro region of this diagram provides elegant balance to the diagram.

The railway network of Île-de-France consists of several different types of rail transport from metro, tram, RER, and Transilien, and due to the differing characteristics of these lines, I had to choose different design styles for each type to provide contrast. Compared to other rapid transit networks around the world, the station spacing in the Metro system is much shorter, so close that some stations are within a 5-minute walk away from each other. But the stops on the tramways are even more closely spaced. In stark contrast, the commuter rail systems RER and Transilien extend far beyond the city center. With this in consideration, I've decided to use lines of varying thickness to give a feel for the capacity, reach, and length of each line type. The tramway lines are shrunk down to fit in the tightly-spaced stations and to communicate the small-scale nature of this mode, so one may have to zoom in to see clearly what the stops are on the tramways.

Another thing I like about this map is the way I incorporated the major rivers flowing through the region using smooth curves. This helps to communicate the fact that rivers are an essential part to the city's geography. If you notice, I made a slight bend in the RER C in the part where the line runs along the southern bank of the Seine, to tell readers that this is in fact a line that traverses the Seine. The way I achieved smooth curves with varying radii in both the railway lines and the rivers was done with a tool that I have described in a footnote below.

This is a zoomed-in version of my Paris diagram showing all the Metro lines and their nearby connections. This is to give viewers on this page a closer focus on the central part of the region, while leaving out the widely spread out commuter rail and tram lines.

I've made two versions of the Seoul Metro network, one with station numbers, and another without station numbers.

The Shanghai Metro network beats the world in having the longest total length of any metro system in the world, at nearly 800 km. (Update: Beijing took that record recently.) One thing I'm particularly proud of is how I used a perfectly rectangular shape for line 4, with exactly 4 lines. (pun intended?) Also, I like the shape of line 11 which has a few long straight line segments curved at no more than 45 degrees, unlike other designs I find on the internet. Coincidentally (or not), another line in the Shenzhen network has the same number, same color, and same design style as this line 11. This drawing showcases my ability to keep all the lines as straight and consistent as possible even within the incredible complexity of this network.

One small but significant design choice I've incorporated in this map is the Maglev line, which is drawn with two colors, one thick line and one thin line overlaid on top. The terminus labels also have background and text colored according to this line. To show that it is super high-speed, the curve radius on the Maglev line is much wider than the rest.

Welcome to the city-state of Singapore. Land at the eastern end of the island at Changi Airport, and depending on what your travel plans are, take a stop at the Jewel, half shopping mall, half botanical garden with a massive waterfall. Indulge in a fine experience by passing through the busy Marina Bay Sands hotel and mall complex at Bayfront station, then take a deep breath of fresh air at Gardens by the Bay. Take a trip to the Sentosa resort island before or after a short shopping stop at VivoCity at HarbourFront station. If you like nature, Botanic Gardens, Singapore Zoo, and Night Forest are great stops for you, but there's no need to go that far if you want to have a look at green architecture in this biophilic city. Finally, to put a stamp on your memories, take a photograph at the famous Merlion fountain near Raffles Place station as proof that you visited Singapore. Also, never worry about stepping on a piece of trash because the streets are squeaky clean.

Of course, your Singapore experience will not be complete without the world-class Mass Rapid Transit, known to us simply as MRT. The lines that define the network form a cohesive transportation system that allows you to choose the correct line easily to get to whichever world-famous destination or neighborhood you want to go. Having trunk lines that run from one end of the island to the opposite end is what makes the MRT so convenient for Singaporean commuters. It's so clean and reliable that by getting around with just the MRT, you can leave with absolute satisfaction of your experience. The only thing you might ever regret is not being able to visit a place you wanted to go, but the city-state (along with its rapid transit) will leave you a lasting impression.

The beauty of Singapore and the comprehensiveness of its rapid transit network makes it a must to include this city in my collage. However, creating this map was quite a tough challenge, and the biggest challenge was to perfect the geometry of the lines in the downtown core area while making sure the labels clearly point to the correct station point, while not being spaced too far apart. Even having a previous version of this diagram and working from it did not make this challenge any easier. One distinctive feature about the network is how many lines run diagonally around the downtown core which forced me to use many 45-degree oriented lines in the area. Fitting the name labels was a major part of this challenge because I had to go through many tweaks to make sure the names unambiguously point to a single station. Another complicating factor is the fact that there are many lines in the area which cross without interchange, and there are eight such points, all of them in or near the downtown core area. The biggest offender is clearly the blue Downtown Line, which to make matters worse crosses itself forming a loop without any direct connection at the self-intersection point. Although, I might understand if the purpose of this line is to divert traffic away from older and busier lines.

After countless modifications of the geometry of my design, I would say this is the best result I ended up with. I've also put in extra work to achieve many symmetric elements with this diagram, such as the shape of the island being symmetric. As for the lines, I've achieved symmetry with the East West (green) line and the Downtown (blue) line, by making them perfectly symmetric horizontally. In fact, the bottom vertex of the East West Line lies exactly on the horizontal center of the diagram. Even at the expense of having not great line shapes for the North South (red) line and a less than ideal loop for the Circle (yelliow) line, this particular geometry has ensured the station spacing remains reasonable throughout the entire diagram. This also communicates something about the urban geography of Singapore, which is that the southern center of the island is the core part of the city, and each MRT line radiates from the downtown core towards each of the outskirts regions. These features are what have enabled me to draw the diagram in a way that it looks similar to a mirror image of itself.

The Taipei MRT is often described as one of the best rapid transit systems in the world. Indeed, some of the good things include reliable service, clean trains, and a bunch of cross-platform transfers. This network might seem smaller than others, but the complexity of this network makes it worth a challenge. Case in point, it took time to figure out the best way to lay out the two indirect transfers between the blue line and the yellow line, as well as to choose a good spacing for the interconnected lines in the central business district. Thanks to my geometry choices, all but one of the lines in my drawing required no more than four straight line segments. I've also made a number of newer design choices including using a unique cable car line style and station boxes for the Maokong Gondola, and merging the two services of the Taoyuan MRT into one line with the two representative colors, blue (commuter) and purple (express), while clearly indicating the express stops.

One thing that makes my diagram unique is showing all the stations of the Taoyuan Airport MRT all the way up to the Taoyuan city center, something which other designs I've seen almost never do - they cut off the line at the airport and say "towards Huanbei" to force users to look at a different map to find out what stations are on the airport line. For those travelling further than the airport, such as to take the high-speed rail at Taoyuan, this is just inconvenient. My fix to this is an easy fix that is just a matter of extending the line within the diagram to the end of the line, as there is not much more to add.

This version of the Taipei MRT map includes the station numbers for each stop, which I've hesitated to make. Once I realized that station numbers are an important part of the Taipei rapid transit system, I've decided I should include these numbers in a separate copy from my original map, in the same style as I did with my Seoul map.

Note: As of now, I'm not completely done with the drawing of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan railway network. What I am done with, for the most part, is the core part of the network that contains all the main Tokyo subway lines and nearby JR lines, which is the focus of this zoom perspective. Even this part of the map is not fully complete because I haven't gotten to, for example, the legends for the lines, and I may be missing some interchanges. The uploaded diagram, along with the full diagram without zoom, will be updated once I complete this map and make appropriate design style changes, such as finding a way to show the through services of the Tokyo subway.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Area railway network is well-known as perhaps the most complex railway system in the world. Its coverage extends well beyond the city center and encompasses hundreds of different lines across the region. Besides the 13 Tokyo subway lines and the most important JR commuter railway lines nearby (including the famous circular Yamanote Line), there are a hundreds of lines of various types including commuter railways that run through-services with the Tokyo subway lines, and trams, monorails, and light rails, operated by many different companies. The railway network is how millions of Japanese residents commute every day.

This map is obviously the biggest challenge in this project I've taken on so far and it's easy to see why. Not only is the scope of the diagram massive and complex, the existence of so many different types of lines in the region means I had to adopt a whole lot of different design styles for different types of lines. Mastering the design of this diagram involved extensive research and study into the way these railway lines operate, because even compared to a city with a similar railway network size like Paris or Seoul, this city is a big step up as there are so many different railway companies. For Paris/Île-de-France, the railways are very much integrated and can be categorized into about four major categories. Seoul's network is completely integrated and homogenous, and so was much easier for me to complete. However, the Tokyo region's railway companies are so disparate from each other that it forced me to choose different design styles for each line. It also leads to the fact that there are so many indirect transfers between stations that I have to do a lot of research to find out. I am doing this to show that very hard never means impossible when it comes to these things.

To take on this massive railway network, there are three challenging phases in which I draw my network diagram. The first phase is to draw all the Tokyo subway lines and nearby JR lines, and also a few local private operators, which is complete. This involves drawing the lines to optimize the line shapes and station spacings in the core area. I've done this enough times before that this challenge is totally approachable. The way I achieved this shows how the Tokyo subway lines interweave each other in such a complex fashion with many intersections without interchange or with indirect interchange but overall form a cohesive network.

The second phase is to draw the commuter railway lines extending in the immediate suburban areas beyond the city center, which I'm nearly done with. It may seem a little less messy with fewer non-interchanging intersections, but this part of the challenge involves planning how the commuter lines will radiate outwards in my diagram with a comfortable station spacing, as well as choosing suitable design styles for different lines.

The third phase involves dealing with the railway lines that extend even further, which I have yet to get to. While the drawing of the lines itself is not very different from the previous phases, it also includes deciding where the boundaries of my diagram should be that I should stop drawing past that point and leave it off the canvas before it gets too big. (Otherwise I might end up drawing the railway network of the entire Japan.)

This strategy highlights how I approach drawing complex network diagrams in general: Start from a dense center, then gradually radiate your way outwards towards less and less complex areas.

For this version, to give good contrast for the overall diagram, I've put a grey outline around the JR lines, the normal thick lines for the main subway lines, slightly thinner lines for private railway operators, and even thinner for trams. For major interchange hubs like Tokyo, Ueno, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, or Shibuya, instead of my usual style of using shapes, I used a round box with a large and bold label inside to capture all of the station's lines so that it is easily comprehensible. (This design feature is common in many Japanese designs of railway networks. I intend this to be an exclusive feature to Japan's networks.) Shinkansen lines are also included and they use very large curve radii. While most of the lines have an ordinary shape and conform as much as possible to the style of my other maps, I've also intentionally included some curves which are atypical elsewhere. Such as, the bends of the Haneda Airport end of the Monorail, adapted to the actual layout of these stations, or the loop on the Yurikamome line as it runs through the Rainbow Bridge, or the winding shape of the Yurikamome on the seaside section, which I've simplified a bit. These design styles may change as I experiment with what works for different lines throughout the process.

Wuhan. This city might be known as the birthplace of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the central Chinese city, through which China's longest river Yangtze flows, has a comprehensive transit network that continues to expand just like other major Chinese cities. The other reason I like to draw these maps is because I like a challenge in drawing complex rapid transit maps and enjoying the results of my drawings. Also, the reason I've focused this much on Chinese cities is because they have some of the longest and most complex metros you could find in the world. If you don't believe me, search "List of metro systems" on Wikipedia and find out how many of the world's longest systems are in China. (Just so you are aware, this is not a place to bring up politics.) I'm particularly proud of the way I executed this drawing, because although I find many other designs on the internet with a similar style to mine, I've improved mine by straightening out some lines particularly in the city center where lines 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are concentrated.