# Correcting the location of a Chinese observation

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [May 23, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305 "2026-05-23T11:44:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![opihiman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/opihiman/32/12357_2.png) [@opihiman](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/opihiman)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305/1 "2026-05-23T11:44:07Z")

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I’ve spent a lot of time lately finding observations with obviously incorrect locations and asking the observers to correct them. One of them, after I had laid out the step-by-step instructions for editing a location, replied today “I know all the methods, but unfortunately Google Maps isn’t available in China.” What do I tell this person? They observed a critter in Sichuan, but the pin on the map is in the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of Peru. If this were on BugGuide, I could just edit their observation for them; can iNat curators edit other people’s observations?

Here is the observation in question:

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294505311](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294505311)

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**Author:** ![DanielAustin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/danielaustin/32/1722_2.png) [@DanielAustin](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/DanielAustin)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2026, 12:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305/2 "2026-05-23T12:14:45Z")

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You don’t need to set the location with the map at all. Just go to edit the observation and click “Edit” next to the longitude/latitude numbers (above the map) and here you can type in the longitude and latitude manually. I would have though this method works even if Google Maps doesn’t.

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**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305/3 "2026-05-23T16:21:41Z")

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Yes, they should be able to enter the coordinates manually on the website regardless of whether Google Maps works.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/correcting-the-location-of-a-chinese-observation/79305/4 "2026-07-22T16:22:26Z")

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Closed on July 22, 2026, 4:22pm UTC

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