Useful Apps For Your Trip To China

Six Essential Apps You’ll Need When Travelling To China

Metro Man

The app gives you an insight into China's major cities. Most big cities in China are criss-crossed by subway lines, which are your main means of transportation. Metro Man provides you with detailed maps and search capabilities for many cities. You just type in where you want to go, and it immediately tells you the nearest subway station and gives you directions to get there.

Pleco

Pleco Chinese Dictionary is a software that helps foreigners learn and improve their Chinese language skills, at least in everyday Chinese. Its biggest characteristic, is through the camera to capture, identify Chinese, real-time translation into English.

Didi

DiDi is China’s version of Uber. It’s the easiest way to get around as a foreigner. Taxi’s are typically cheap, starting at less than 10 RMB ($1.31) for a 10-minute journey. DiDi allows you to enter your pick up point and destination prior to starting your journey, avoiding the difficulties of trying to explain this to the driver. It also has a messaging service that automatically translates the driver and your responses.

Be sure to download the English version. You may need to switch your phone’s app store to the Chinese one. You can input a foreign card and foreign number to create an account. Meaning it can be used, even if you’re not living in China. It is the best app for travelling in China.

Here is the video of how to use Didi in China

Ctrip

Ctrip is a Chinese travel website that currently offers hotels, flights, train tickets and other services that are very useful, especially for English speakers who like to travel by train. It is a very useful and powerful app for you to travel in China.

Express VPN

You really need VPN for Facebook and Google.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube and many other sites you normally use are all blocked in China, because of the Great Firewall of China. Chinese people have their own Apps for most of popular services. Thus, it’s really important to prepare a VPN before you go to China, so that you could get access to websites you usually use, and also stay in touch with your family or friends.

Alipay

Alipay is another payment platform similar to WeChat. It is predominantly used for payments. If you’re living in China and have a Chinese bank account, this is a must have. However, if you’re travelling through, you can skip this one – it’s definitely not as vital as some of the China apps listed here.

Here is the video of how to set up and use AliPay in China on your smartphone