The last time I flew around China in MSFS 2020 it was pretty poor. A patchwork of poor autogen, poor terrain and it just looked underwhelming in every way.  Even places like Hong Kong looked pretty dreadful outside of the airport. I obviously understand MSFS is not privy to the level of terrain data for say, Europe.  

What's the situation like at the moment? Has anyone ventured in recently?  Where is terrain good or bad?  I don't really want to plan a flight and have it look like Roblox when I land!
 

TIA!

11 minutes ago, Langeveldt said:

Even places like Hong Kong looked pretty dreadful outside of the airport. 
 

That's what the SamScene 3D Hong Kong add-on is for. Go get this add-on, it makes Hong Kong look pretty good outside the airport.

1 hour ago, Langeveldt said:

The last time I flew around China in MSFS 2020 it was pretty poor. A patchwork of poor autogen, poor terrain and it just looked underwhelming in every way.  Even places like Hong Kong looked pretty dreadful outside of the airport. I obviously understand MSFS is not privy to the level of terrain data for say, Europe.  

What's the situation like at the moment? Has anyone ventured in recently?  Where is terrain good or bad?  I don't really want to plan a flight and have it look like Roblox when I land!
 

TIA!

China is much better in MSFS2024 - I was previously using the MSFS Map enhancement addon in 2020 to replace the default Bing maps with native Chinese maps in China, but in 2024 I haven't found that this is necessary even when flying to far-western Chinese provinces like Gansu, Xinjiang, and Tibet.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Stavros

I noticed Hong Kong has higher quality elevation data in 2024 compared to 2020.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Tuskin38

There are some decent payware and freeware addons for China that make things look a bit better but the terrain is still fairly poor quality in many areas.

Two I Particularly like are:

VHHH Hong Kong by wfscenerystudio;

VMMC Macau by Samscene.

WFSceneryStudio is a top-tier (Tier-0) Chinese add-on developer that has created numerous major hub airports, such as VHHH, ZSPD, and ZBAA. Their add-ons are highly recommended for purchase. SamScene, while not as detailed as WF, is still a competent developer—you can selectively purchase their airports based on your needs.

I'm not chinese.  I have only been to China and I think it's a cool place.  In FS2024 I fly in China,  I have WF ZSPD, ZBAA, ZGGG, ZSSS and VHHH.  I also have Samscene ZSAM and ZHHH. I also have Shanghai City and Hong Kong City Times from Samscene I can say that my experience flying in China with 2024 is much improved and all the sceneries I listed gave me free upgrades to 2024 in Orbx Central.  Just go to the product page and if you already have it it will show a free upgrade.   

The Default Airport scenery is pretty bad , but I was surprised at how much stock China is improved over FS 2020.  Terrain is much better but still not on the level of US/Europe or Japan.  I keep hoping for a China World Update but we never get one. 

There is a massive amount of scenery now covering China,Korea, Japan and East Asia in general... finally.  Now if only we could get some good developers in India.

Just a heads up for anyone reading this thread that uses MSFS 2020...

Sim Update 16 (SU16) in August 2025 unified the base global scenery for both 2020 & 2024 - so now the MSFS 2024 China scenery is also served in MSFS 2020.

I had the OrbX "Himalaya and Central Asia" mesh on MSFS2020 and I have also activated it in MSFS2024. I believe there's at least a part of China that is covered by that mesh, but I don't know how much better it is compared to the pure default MSFS2024 mesh...

I had bought that product after seeing one of those youtube channels where people just stick a camera on top of their cars and go ride the most beautiful roads here and there, and that one was specific to China and nearby regions. One of the videos was showing a region close to the lake Qinghai with some breathtaking landscapes, so I wanted to visit them in the sim 😄

Sadly, in MSFS2020 it's not really looking good at all, and I get a slightly better result in MSFS2024, but nowhere as impressive as it is on the youtube video...

Edited January 12Jan 12 by Daube

The MSFS community has been active in creating mods and add-ons that enhance scenery. Check platforms like FlightSim.to for user-generated content that may improve the visuals of specific areas in China. Before planning a flight, check forums and community discussions for the latest experiences and recommendations. Reddit and dedicated flight simulation forums can be useful resources. While MSFS 2020 has made strides in improving scenery and terrain, flying in China can still present challenges in terms of visual quality. If you want to avoid a disappointing experience, researching specific regions and utilizing community resources can help enhance your flights.

I have just started flying in China(2020 & 2024) and Samscene products are pretty good. 

Thanks all.  Glad to hear there is an improvement.

I'm more interested in hearing about the general scenery.  As no point in going to a beautifully handcrafted third party airport that's surrounded by FS98 scenery.  Harbin was a particularly bad offender in MSFS 2020 a year or so ago.

Maybe time to take a look for myself.  Thanks all.  

Hmmmm I believe this thread is all the excuse I need to plan an overflight mission in the Blackbird Simulations SR-71 just to see how it looks from FL800....

Stoopy, What is the best SR-71 available now?

 

4 hours ago, Langeveldt said:

Thanks all.  Glad to hear there is an improvement.

I'm more interested in hearing about the general scenery.  As no point in going to a beautifully handcrafted third party airport that's surrounded by FS98 scenery.  Harbin was a particularly bad offender in MSFS 2020 a year or so ago.

Maybe time to take a look for myself.  Thanks all.  

As a Chinese user, I can only say that the default scenery in 2024 is vastly better than what was available before 2020—it’s now at a level where it’s actually flyable. You can check Volanta; there are still a large number of MSFS 2024 flights operating over China every day. Of course, you can’t expect China’s default scenery to match the ultra-high-precision scanned scenery of places like Japan.

I just flew over Harbin yesterday, and from high altitude, it looked pretty much the same as I remembered it from real life a few years ago.