MUST HAVE applications for travelling in China Mainland!

Undoubtedly, China Mainland is a unique travel destination and once in a lifetime experience as it combines many different elements (history, technology, beautiful landscapes, different people etc). To be honest before my trip to China I was very nervous. All in China seemed to work in a different way than in anywhere else in the world , innumerous applications needed to have been downloaded , doubt if those applications will actually work. I had read once that you cannot go to China without being prepared and it is true.

Nevertheless, there is no need to worry. I will explain how everything works, and which applications were useful to me during my stay in China.

Internet Connection and VPN

I am sure that you have heard about the great firewall of China. Indeed, exists and is powerful. VPN is essential to you not only to be connected to your social media accounts (Facebook/Instagram/YouTube etc) and chat applications (WhatsApp, Viber, messenger etc) but also to your email and bank accounts (Revolut for example did not work without VPN or even my personal internet banking account). As per my research not all VPN’s work in China. I have used Lets’ VPN which worked fine and is quite economic (4,69 US dollars/month). In case you use an esim card, the VPN comes with your esim connection. Therefore, there is no need to worry about the VPN (i would recomend you though to have also a VPN apart from your esim, just in case). I used Holafly esim for one day until I buy my regular sim card, and it worked fine. Both VPN and ESIM card need to be purchased before arriving in China.

Esim is a great and easy solution but not the most economic one. In case you search for something more economic or in case that your mobile phone does not support esim cards you can always buy a normal sim card from a mobile store in China. I bought from China Unicom and it cost me 100 yuan (about 13 Euros) for 15 days/40 GB. The prices at the airport are usually higher but certainly an easier solution when arriving at the country.

Payments

Upon resolving the internet issue as mentioned above, we come to the matter of highest importance which is the payments. The payments are basically made in China via two applications: Alipay and WeChat. WeChat is also used for chatting inside China since Chinese people do not usually have access to other chat applications.

I had downloaded both, but I only used Alipay as it was more convenient and user friendly to me. You create an account, enter a code and you need to connect your debit/credit card to the application. (I have connected my Revolut and my Wise card and they both worked perfectly fine. It is better to have one of these cards as there are no extra charges from the money exchange while the conversion rate is usually very good). Then there is a scan option and a pay option that you may use, and it depends on the seller. Sometimes they scan your personal code in order to get paid while other times you need to scan the sellers QR code via the application and then insert the amount you have to pay. In both cases (scan/pay) to complete the transaction your code is asked for verification. For up to about 1.200 EUR no extra verification (passport /id copy etc) is needed through the application but there is an extra charge (about 3%) for payments above 200 won. 

If you choose to use WeChat you need to know that a verification is required by another WeChat user that has an account for more than 6 months, a fact that makes it difficult to achieve if you do not have any Chinese friends that could assist you.

Cash can also be used. Nevertheless, you need to have small notes as in most of the cases it is difficult for change to be found.

Maps

Due to the great firewall, as mentioned above, no access to Google is permitted without VPN. Nevertheless, even with VPN, google maps is not very accurate. I used it only for distances that you may do on foot, and it worked fine but it cannot give instructions on how to go to a place and which transportation to use. The applications that were useful to me for transportation and maps were MetroMan and Maps.Me.

MetroMan shows how to go from one metro station to another (which line, where to change lines, how many stops etc). China has a huge metro system that you can use to go almost everywhere and also very cheap (0,30 to 0,40 EUR per ticket).

Maps.Me is an offline map application that may be used instead of google maps for instructions on how to go from one place to another by transport or on foot. It is not a 100% accurate but in combination with MetroMan and Google, it is very useful and easy to use.

For those who have iPhone, apple maps are more accurate in China.

Translation applications

English is hard to listen when in China. Fortunately, the metro stations are also written in English as some important information in monuments. Otherwise only in hotels and in some shopping markets you may find people speaking English. In AliPay there is a translation tool that is very helpful. It can translate both from Chinese to English and vice versa while when you enter at a Chinese site it has a translation button that makes instant translation of its content. Google Translate can also be used if VPN is on.

Taxi application

The most used taxi application is DiDi. You may find it in Alipay application which is very easy to use as the payment is also made from your Alipay account. In most of the cases you need to say a 4digit number to the taxi driver (the last 4 digits of your mobile phone number) to verify your destination.

Train Reservations

For train reservations you may use trip.com which is very convenient and easy to use. You can also download the 12306 train application and book you tickets through it or just make your research as the names of the stations coincide with the metro stations and you can locate this way the one that is more convenient to you.

For more information or to help you plan your ideal trip within your budget, please contact us.