Living in China as a foreigner is a rewarding but challenging life. If you are not fluent in speaking and reading Chinese, it can be a real struggle. Thankfully, technology has made it easier. Here are some applications I use daily with my iPhone with a US App Store.
Translation
Google Translate
The best for text translation. It supports an offline translation mode if you download the speech files. The key to getting a good English to Chinese translation is to use extremely short but complete sentences, avoid idioms, avoid jokes/sarcasm, and avoid any shorthand sentences. For example, do not translate “See you soon” (this common American shorthand incorrectly gets translated to “Zaijian” which means “Goodbye” ) but instead you should translate “I will see you soon.” (translates correctly as it is a correct sentence). The APP does not require a VPN to work, however, you should know that https://translate.google.com is blocked in China, but https://translate.google.cn is allowed.
Microsoft Translator
The best for image translation. The Microsoft Translator app does an amazing job on taking a picture or screenshot, recognizing Chinese characters, and overlaying the original image with an English translation. While Google Translate can also do this, Microsoft wins hands down on this feature. This is especially useful when using Chinese language only applications, such as Taobao, which often do not support copy and pasting the Chinese content or options. You can take a screenshot of the Chinese app on an iPhone by clicking the left and right buttons of your phone simultaneously, then going into Microsoft Translator, and loading the screenshot. While this is a very tedious process, it is extremely useful when you have no better option.
Life
WeChat is effectively your entire social life in China. This app supports a very good interface in English. Whether you chat with your friends, pay for a meal out, using local built in WeChat apps, or catching up on friend “moments”, you simply cannot survive in China without using WeChat. However, in order to enable WeChat with payments, you must do “Real Name Verification” which means you must have a mainland China bank card. Foreign and domestic credit cards can be linked to WeChat but are not capable of performing the Real Name Verification. Sadly, if you are a tourist it is (now) typically not possible to enable WeChat payments because nearly all banks will refuse to open an account for a foreigner without China employment.
Alipay
This APP is essential for many business payments and services. I find myself using WeChat more often than Alipay, but some places such as Taobao require Alipay. Overall, I don’t like Alipay with its sprawling and poorly designed capabilities that rarely support foreigners, but it’s an essential app.
Shopping
JingDong “JD”
If you are an Amazon-aholic, this is a very similar Chinese only experience. The quality of the items are very high with exceptional service and shipping speeds. You will need to find items that are sold directly by JD or JD logistics to ensure the highest quality and overnight delivery, but even small sellers tend to be more reputable than Taobao sellers. I am big fan and recommend the JD VIP club. I buy everything from 10kg bags of rice, shampoo, clothing, and electronics on here.
Taobao
If it isn’t sold on Taobao, it probably isn’t available in China. While I prefer JD over Taobao due to quality and speed, I often shop Taobao if I want the best deal or a hard to find item. They key to being a smart shopper on Taobao is to look at who is selling the item. If it is a T-Mall item (which has its own app also owned by Alibaba), it is likely going to be very high quality. However, there are many individual shops that sell on Taobao. I would recommend checking to see how many items they have sold in the past. If it isn’t in the thousands, “buyer beware”. You want to buy from stores that have one or multiple “Diamond” pictures next to their store name which indicates they are a professional store with many previous sales. There are plenty of fakes and poor quality items, but using Taobao is still essential. I tend to buy odd items like a bottle of bourbon, cheap electronics, or even bulk purchases of aged Italian parmesan cheese.
Travel
Baidu Maps
Baidu search is probably the worse search engine I’ve had to use but their maps are quite good for finding locations in China for driving, walking, and public transit routes. However, take all their navigation time estimates as flat out wrong in most circumstances.
Didi
There is rarely a need to actually drive yourself given how easy and affordable Didi makes it. This is a similar application to Uber, but I’m very impressed that they their APP has native English support with a built in translations for chats done with the driver. Top tip: if you use the Chinese language, you can enable extra Chinese only features such as “Sharing a ride” (saves money when you ride with others) and “Change the destination”. Yeah, that’s right – if you accidentally need to change the destination while in the English language, you will need to reload the application in Chinese to do so. Good luck.
Fliggy
My favorite travel logistics service for mainland China. While the interface is slightly more complex than its competitor, Trip.com/CTrip, the benefits are that the prices tends to be cheaper and the integration to booking train tickets does not charge any 20RMB convenience charge – nice!
Food
Meituan
Nearly every restaurant imaginable has food delivery in China. Yes, even a gourmet Beijing Duck or an impressive boiling hotpot dinner can be boxed up and delivered pipping hot within a short amount of time. The application interface is exclusively in English, so I often resort to using a combination of Google Translate and Microsoft Translator with screenshots to navigate this essential application.
DianPing
While related to Meituan, this app focuses on just reviews. This Chinese only app is the best way to search local restaurants, shops, and experience for finding the best of any city. I would compare it as very similar to “Yelp” with a hint of “Trip Advisor”. As you find your favorite restaurants, you can star the restaurant in the app to build a list of favorite places to recommend to your friends.
JD Food Delivery
From foreigner supermarkets stocked with french Cheese, to your local wetmarket with 0.1RMB eggs, JD Delivery is the best grocery store delivery app. Each store charges a small (usually 6RMB) delivery fee, so it’s best to think of what you need to buy and group your order into a single stores purchase. As a foreigner, this makes purchasing groceries from wetmarkets so much easier because you can easily compare prices and search for exactly what you want. Deliveries are often done in less than an hour.
VPN
Shadowrocket
If you a foreigner it’s quite likely you are going to need a VPN to survive in China. Using a VPN inside China is perfectly legal (but you can’t sell VPN without the right licenses). Shadowrocket supports both Shadowsocks (SSR) and v2Ray — two of the most effective VPN technologies for jumping the Great Firewall. While this application does cost money, I view the features over the free alternatives as “worth it.” If you require a pretty good free version, check out Potatso2. This application does not provide the VPN service. For that, you can see my other blog post on how to pick a good commercial VPN provider for China.