Ryo's Journey (so far) Map

[Niko Hazuki]

Hey, folks, I was going through my copy of Shenmue World that arrived recently, and was reading the article about Yu Suzuki's research trip to China. I found it quite fascinating to look at the map of China indicating all of the cities that Yu visited, especially when I found out that he went to Mengcun, the place where Ryo's father supposedly killed Zhao Sunming (Lan Di's father). After that, I went looking for the locations that Ryo has visited and where they might've been.

I found that the locations that do exist are for example Yokosuka in Japan (of course) and Niaowu, however, Niaowu in real life is based on a city in the Hunan province called 'Phoenix Town' or 'Fenghuang'. The Great Wall where Ryo, Shenhua and Ren go to in the ending of Shenmue III is also situated in Phoenix Town in real life, and is called the Southern Great Wall or the Miaojiang Great Wall. Locations that are seemingly fictional are the Bailu Village and Langhuishan Village areas in Guilin. I have not been able to find any place sharing the name Langhuishan, but there was a village called Bailu situated in Shichuan that was leveled by an earthquake in 2008, but there is no relation with the fictional Bailu Village, as it's not located in the Guangxi province. Chobu from Shenmue III where Niaowu is located also seems to have been created specifically for the game. In real life, Phoenix Town (Niaowu) and the (Southern) Great Wall is located in the Hunan province.

I hope you found this interesting, hopefully I can update this map in the near future!

 

[Sergeynest]

Nice map; but unfortunately the location where you placed Phoenix Town aka Fenghuang is wrong.
Fenghuang is located in the southern region of China in Hunan province wich is actually closer to Guilin.


I think from this picture you can get an idea of the correct location of the town that inspired Niaowu in Shenmue 3.
Also the great wall that is featured in Shenmue 3 is probably the Southern great wall wich is located in that region.
Nevertheless good work; the image of the map is very well done; you just need to correct the location of Niaowu in your map.

 

[Niko Hazuki]

Nice map; but unfortunately the location where you placed Phoenix Town aka Fenghuang is wrong.
Fenghuang is located in the southern region of China in Hunan province wich is actually closer to Guilin.

View attachment 11241
I think from this picture you can get an idea of the correct location of the town that inspired Niaowu in Shenmue 3.
Also the great wall that is featured in Shenmue 3 is probably the Southern great wall wich is located in that region.
Nevertheless good work; the image of the map is very well done; you just need to correct the location of Niaowu in the your map.

Ah, my mistake, apparently there is a Phoenix Town near Beijing, which is the one I found, but I wasn't aware of the Mandarin name. I'll be sure to make a revised map. Thanks for correcting!

 

[Niko Hazuki]

Nice map; but unfortunately the location where you placed Phoenix Town aka Fenghuang is wrong.
Fenghuang is located in the southern region of China in Hunan province wich is actually closer to Guilin.

View attachment 11241
I think from this picture you can get an idea of the correct location of the town that inspired Niaowu in Shenmue 3.
Also the great wall that is featured in Shenmue 3 is probably the Southern great wall wich is located in that region.
Nevertheless good work; the image of the map is very well done; you just need to correct the location of Niaowu in your map.

Hey, man, just updated the map. Have a look!

 

[Sergeynest]

Hey, man, just updated the map. Have a look!

Nice . Looking cool.

 

[Jesse]

I wonder how many miles Ryo has traveled so far? Quite a lot I bet. His shoes are the stuff of legends to never get wore out or torn etc

 

[Sonoshee]

At least you can get him new shoes in S3, smell must be atrocious by now

 

[Rydeen]

At least you can get him new shoes in S3, smell must be atrocious by now

In my headcanon, living with young Shenhua has forced Ryo to reevaluate what he's been wearing, and for how long. Thus the clothing system in SIII was born, and Ryo starts copping those fly Js wherever he goes (might have just been me, though).

Chobu from Shenmue III where Niaowu is located also seems to have been created specifically for the game.

This is really cool! Thanks for putting it together.
A note or two: Chobu and Niaowu aren't really separate areas; They're two names for the exact same place. Choubu is just the Japanese pronunciation for the counterpart Chinese reading ("NIaowu"). Also, within the game, Niaowu is situated on the Li River, which as far as I could figure out, doesn't seem to leave Guilin.