Locating system to help improve navigation

More than 100 cities to benefit once project is up and running

A navigation system, capable of almost pinpoint accuracy, will cover more than 100 cities and benefit at least 200 million people across the nation, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology Cao Jianlin said.

The Xihe system, named after a god in ancient China, will be introduced by 2020. Recent tests showed that it was accurate to within one-tenth of a meter outdoors and 3 meters in enclosed spaces.

"The accuracy of navigation satellites is about 10 meters," Cao said.

"But with a chip loaded with Xihe on a GPS device, the accuracy (for civilian use) will be within 1 meter outdoors and 3 meters indoors, so you will never get lost — even inside a large shopping mall," he said.

Xihe integrates technology to receive and send signals from all four major navigation satellite systems — China's Beidou, the Global Positioning System from the US, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.

Once connected to all the major navigation satellites, the Xihe system will increase the accuracy of all four systems and cut the cost for users of mobile devices, Cao said.

"For a highly accurate navigation device, the price will be cut by at least 50 percent."

Pilot projects are in progress in Jiangsu province, Tianjin and Beijing to develop applications of Xihe, and chips and handsets are under research and development.

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