Top 25 apps to have in China, ranked like a boarding pass

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Verify your passport first, then link a Visa or Mastercard. Do it two or three days before you fly: guides report waits of up to 72 hours for the passport check. Payments up to ¥200 are free and a payment over ¥200 carries a 3% fee, so check the fee shown in your own Alipay. Taxis, food delivery, trains and the arrival card all open as mini-programs inside it. Full setup: China travel apps guide.

SRC: Trip.com; China for Travelers; Alipay

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Add your card under Me, Pay and Services, Wallet, Bank Cards. New accounts are sometimes asked for a friend verification, where someone already on WeChat scans a code for you, so start at home. Tencent announced on 27 May 2026 that first-time users who link an international card pay no transaction fee for 90 days, on up to ¥1,000 a day. After that, WeChat's own help page says payments over ¥200 carry 3%.

SRC: WeChat Help Center; Tencent, 27 May 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026You cannot get one after you land: Apple removed VPN apps from the China App Store in 2017 and provider sites are blocked. LetsVPN, long the one people recommended, said in April 2026 it was ending service for mainland China. Pick a paid VPN with a stealth or obfuscation mode, test it at home, and treat it as a backup. Using one sits in a legal grey area in China.

SRC: Airalo; China Digital Times; Comparitech

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Airalo, Holafly, Nomad and Trip.com say their China plans route your data outside China, so Google, WhatsApp and Instagram work without a VPN; read the plan description to be sure. Install it on Wi-Fi at home. An eSIM is data only, so keep your home SIM for text codes from your bank, Alipay and WeChat. Hotel Wi-Fi does not route abroad, which is why a VPN is still the backup.

SRC: Airalo; Nomad

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Amap (Gaode) reported a record 360 million daily users on 1 October 2025. The AMap Global app has had English since January 2025 and 14 more languages since July 2025, and it books taxis in English. Paste the Chinese name of your hotel from the booking into the search box. On an iPhone, Apple Maps also works in China without a VPN and is a fine second map.

SRC: Alibaba Group; Shanghai government; AMap, Aug 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026DiDi opens inside Alipay under Transport, so you do not need the standalone app. AMap Global also books rides in English and pays through Alipay or WeChat Pay. Link Alipay at home first.

SRC: Alipay; AMap; DiDi on the App Store

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026The easiest place to book in English, with 24/7 English support and guest checkout for trains that does not need a verified passport. Its hotel search can filter for hotels that accept foreign guests, which matters because some hotels in China still cannot take foreigners. Compare the final price with 12306 before you pay.

SRC: Trip.com; China Railway 12306

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Register and verify your passport at home. Tickets normally open 15 days ahead, counting the travel day. Quiet features: a waitlist for sold-out trains, where you prepay and get a refund if it fails, and a 60-day reservation pilot on more than 200 Beijing to Shanghai trains since 20 July 2026. Beware of lookalike apps: the official one is 铁路12306.

SRC: China Railway 12306; Beijing government, July 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026A March 2026 guide says it works on any Chinese network, so no VPN. Text works offline after you download the Chinese pack; the camera needs a connection.

SRC: Chinavigators, March 2026; Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026A free offline Chinese dictionary: when a menu translation makes no sense, look up the characters one by one. Drawing a character with your finger is free; camera recognition is a paid add-on (€9.99 on the Irish App Store).

SRC: Pleco on the App Store

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Use the Meituan mini-program inside Alipay or WeChat rather than the standalone app. One 2026 guide found the standalone app is Chinese only and its phone field expects a mainland number, so use your hotel's number and the front desk can pass the food on. Restaurants set minimum orders, and the remarks field takes notes like less spicy.

SRC: WanderInChina; Chinaguidelines, 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026China's main restaurant review app. The App Store lists English, but in practice it is partial and reviews are not translated. The feature worth installing it for is 排队 (queue): take a number for a busy restaurant from your phone and watch how many tables are ahead of you.

SRC: WanderInChina, Feb 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Offline metro maps for 53 Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi'an, in English. Free with an optional paid upgrade. In Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu you can also tap a foreign Visa or Mastercard straight on the gate.

SRC: MetroMan on the App Store; China for Travelers

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Download the Chinese pack before you go, because the offline pack is what you can count on. Guides disagree on whether the online version works on Chinese Wi-Fi without a VPN (one from March 2026 says it is blocked, one from June 2026 says it no longer needs a VPN), so treat online use as a bonus.

SRC: Chinavigators, March 2026; Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026A March 2026 guide says it is not blocked on Chinese networks and has a full offline mode with downloaded packs, including text, voice and camera. It also supports Cantonese. On an iPhone, Apple Translate works offline too once Chinese is downloaded.

SRC: Chinavigators, March 2026; Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026First-hand: on my account, bought from Ireland, Chinese was the only language on offer, but I could switch the currency to euro and search in English. Add a delivery address first, ask your hotel before sending a parcel there, and pay with Alipay. The full 12 steps are in my Taobao guide.

SRC: Natali, first-hand

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Ask anyone in China where to eat and they open RedNote. It added AI translation in January 2025 and you can sign up with a foreign number, but the interface is still mostly Chinese, so search with the Chinese name of a place copied from Amap.

SRC: TechNode, Jan 2025

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026The app is entirely in Chinese, so paste the Chinese name of the place into search. Guest browsing works without an account. Full features need real-name verification, and a June 2026 guide says foreign passports are not reliably accepted. On an iPhone you may need to switch your App Store region to download it. It is separate from TikTok.

SRC: ChinaSurvivalKit, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Alibaba's travel app, with a mini-program inside Alipay. Alipay and Fliggy ran a flight coupon campaign for international visitors in January 2024. I would use it only as a price check next to Trip.com.

SRC: Business Today, Jan 2024

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026A June 2026 list calls it best for offline chats, with a Chinese-English offline package and, recently, offline voice translation. Download the package at home.

SRC: Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Good for long copied messages and files. I could not confirm whether it works in China without a VPN: a June 2026 list says you need one, so test it at home and keep it as an optional third translator.

SRC: Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Skip it unless you already have it. It is still in the App Store but has not been updated since 2017, and one 2026 list says its translations can be rough. Use Baidu Translate or Microsoft Translator for menus instead.

SRC: Waygo on the App Store; Trip.com, June 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026The Ele.me brand was retired in December 2025: it is now called Taobao Flash Sale (淘宝闪购), same service, and runs as a mini-program in Alipay. Look for that name. One 2026 guide found it has no English and needs a Chinese-format phone number for the rider, so use your hotel's.

SRC: TechNode, Dec 2025; Caixin; Chinaguidelines

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Scan the QR code on the handlebars; a 2026 guide says the China version lets you log in with WeChat or Alipay. Prices are around ¥1 to ¥1.50 for the first 15 minutes, most users pay no deposit, and parking outside the marked zones can be fined. Check the app for current prices and zones.

SRC: Trip.com, April 2026

FINE PRINT · CHECKED 18 OCT 2026Free to download, but its App Store listing sells unlimited-translation passes from $1.99 for 3 days up to $19.99 for life. I could not confirm the free daily allowance on the listing, so check it in the app before you rely on it.

SRC: Kuli Kuli on the App Store