China Travel Tech Prep: Apps to Download (2023)

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I've gotten a lot of inquiries about my experience traveling in China in 2023 and how I navigated, specifically around navigating the technological side of it. I decided to compile in a post so everything can be in one place. I'll be sharing what I used and how I got around! I went to China in the fall of 2023 so all of my information will be from then. Thoughtful Wanders is not a conventional travel blog or resources platform, so please don't rely on this as an up-to-date guide. Take what I write with a grain of salt and continue to do your own research and take this as my experience from this particular point in time.

Keep in mind...A few things that made my particular situation unique and unlikely to apply to most foreigners & travelers...

• Traveled to China on a compatriot card which is unique to people holding Taiwanese, Hong Kong, and Macau identity cards (these are all different from each other). Hence, my experience entering and staying is different from most foreigners.
• Native heritage Mandarin speaker. Not 100% advanced fluent, but fluent enough to speak and read most things one encounters everyday and have decently in-depth conversations. If I didn't know a word, I could look it up easily because I know how to write/type. The biggest issue for me was learning to read simplified since I am more familiar with traditional Mandarin, but it is easier to learn simplified from traditional than the other way around (plus dictionaries helped!)
• Have family in China so I was able to set up a phone number and WeChat Pay account with relative ease

Regardless, this was also my first time traveling in China as an adult and navigating it as an outsider, so I am very aware of the differences from traveling in other places and want to share resources.

This blog post is a practical one! I have many thoughts about the societal impacts of the technological ecosystem that I'll write about separately.

Vital Apps I Used

• WeChat (and/or AliPay)
• Didi Taxi
• Trip.Com
• Apple Maps (Alternatives: Baidu Maps, A Maps)

Less Vital Apps, but good to have

• Xiao Hong Shu 小红书 (Everything...)
• Dian Ping 点评 (Restaurant reviews)
• Meituan 美团 (Food delivery)

WeChat is a MUST

Everything is done on WeChat. Everything can be done on WeChat. I already had WeChat before but only used it to message with family and friends. Little did I know that this was a full fledged multi-functional expansive app that does everything, and probably so many more things I don't even know about. It is the app everyone uses to message each other. It is also the primary social feed (where friends post photos & statuses to keep in touch). It is ALSO a wallet and became my primary wallet for paying for things. You can also download "Mini Programs" in WeChat so you wouldn't need to download separate apps. For example, you could download Trip.Com and Didi Taxi (which I'll go into later) on WeChat instead of having a different app.

Great Firewall & VPN things — Recommend: Astrill VPN

China's "Great Firewall" means that as soon as you enter the borders of mainland China, you won't be able to access the apps and websites that are blocked. This includes all Google apps (Google, Youtube, Gmail etc) and Meta apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp). Check this wiki for full list of blocked apps. Not only are these apps not accessible with devices we bring from outside of China, locals do not get these apps in their app stores, so they cannot be downloaded at all. Any apps you may need that is on the block list, make sure to download it ahead of time. Fun fact: Tiktok on non-Chinese app stores is a different app from Douyin, which is the version in Chinese app stores. They have the same logo and look the same (duh, they are from the same company), but their names are different. You can't get "Tiktok" in a Chinese app store and cannot get "Douyin" in a non-Chinese app store.

There are so many VPNs out there. The best one for China by far is Astrill VPN. I did a lot of research ahead of time to double check. VPNs that work in China have varied a lot over the years since they are always adjusting their firewall so VPN companies also have to react accordingly. There are many free VPN options or cheaper options such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Proton VPN etc but through research, I learned that these apps had a lot of issues, at least in 2023. (As per usual, I like to scour Reddit threads for info). I paid the $$$ for Astrill and it was so worth it. I was able to access all my apps as I normally would while I was traveling around and it worked smoothly. I met people along the way who did not have reliable VPNs and had shared with them to use Astrill as well. I can tell the company does a lot to keep up with being a high quality and reliable software.

Download Astrill VPN here.

Other ways to access apps and websites beyond the firewall..

Data roaming! If you are going to China with a SIM card from another country, it is possible that when you roam in China, you automatically are not within the firewall and can access all your apps as usual.

Cashless Society. How to Pay?

When I heard that China was cashless, I had a hard time comprehending what that meant. My life in the U.S. was essentially cashless too, since I used credit cards and Apple Pay most of the time. But if I wanted to pay with cash, I could. Brick and mortar stores would also usually have change. They'd at least have bills...

Well, when I went in 2023...China was truly cashless. I saw my first bill (a 20 Yuan) when people were holding it up on a boat in Guilin to take photos with the karsts we were passing by that is pictured on the back of the 20 yuan bill. I was already 4 weeks into my trip at this point and my first time seeing a bill was during a photo opp!

Everyone pays with WeChat Pay or AliPay. How do you pay? Every store has a QR code, you just pull out your phone, go to your wallet in WeChat or AliPay, scan the QR code, type in how much you owe the store, then you're done. You paid. The store typically will have a little speaker announcing out loud that payment is received since they are usually busy running around cooking and prepping the order. I was able to use WeChat Pay because I set it up with family and had done some transfers ahead of time. Since I had WeChat Pay (meaning I had money in a bank account, and/or in WeChat), I could also transfer other people money or receive transfers. This made everything more convenient because say, you go out to eat with a group of friends and need to split the bill, the transfers can all be arranged in WeChat; a simple tap of a button, ta-da! you have paid the person back. Same for if I was arranging a more casual exchange of cash (e.g. casual driver hires in the mountains). You come to a verbal agreement, add them on WeChat, then transfer and pay. Other times, was when I stayed at a B&B and wanted to lengthen my stay. The B&B owner had me WeChat the payment instead of paying through the booking link. Since WeChat is also the main (only...) messaging platform everyone uses, it becomes incredibly easy to find contacts and pay them.

My foreign friends and travelers who used international credit cards used AliPay to pay for their expenses. I didn't use AliPay personally because I didn't set up a foreign card. I just know it's possible to connect an international credit card and pay that way. Every charge would then go through your credit card and be an expense that way. I did hear from friends though that sometimes this would not work. Sometimes it depends on receiving end of the store and they may not be able to take AliPay or the international card. Just be aware!

OK, but what if I wanted to pay in cash?

Legally...stores are obligated to take your cash. However, will the stores have change? Many of the street vendors you'll find do not have change. Even brick and mortar stores will rarely have change. China has been cashless for many many years now, sure, COVID years did expedite a lot of the technological habits we see today. But, people are very used to not carrying around cash. It is basically unfathomable to carry cash, so it is also unlikely for stores to have cash. The most important item for everyone to carry around is their phone. You could pay in cash, but just know that it may be difficult for you to get change back.

Anyway, AliPay should work for the most part. But if you run into issues with your foreign bank, it's good to have a VPN handy (Astrill!) to allow you to log into your bank apps if needed.

Booking Travel (Hotels, Trains, Flights) — Trip.com

I used one app for my whole trip and found it to be such an easy breeze! Trip.com! That's all I needed. Trip.com used to be called "CTrip" but expanded and now it's an app/site that one can use to book travel all around Asia. I used the app in English and searched for hotels, high speed rail and flight tickets there. It was so straightforward and definitely one of the easiest times I had traveling and booking stays. It keeps a profile of you, including your ID and phone number. When booking, it auto-fills all that info in. I'm also pretty sure it shows you only hotels you're eligible to stay at, since some hotels cannot take foreigners.

I often did not book stays until a few days before. Whether in big cities or small towns, there were generally a lot of options and it was easy to sort through on the app and find accommodation that fit my criteria budget-wise. I enjoy staying in hostels in big Chinese cities because they tend to be very clean (many stalls of bathrooms and slippers etc provided as well as clean and comfortable beds with curtains) and have a huge public area to hang out in.

Be it booking trains, hotels, hostels, or flights, the app was so easy to use. Just a few clicks and it was booked. Everything was linked to my WeChat Pay so paying was very quick too. WeChat Pay also documents all costs so you can go back and review your payment history and receipts. Also if rooms and trains are refundable, you will get your refund in WeChat Pay as well and it all happens pretty quickly. I rarely ran into any issues. I could also change trains (e.g. High speed rail times) via the app, which for the most part also worked out smoothly. Main things to keep in mind when changing/cancelling are the extra associated fees.

Getting Around — Transportation

I traveled between cities and towns mostly by high speed rail. I'll have a whole other essay about my excitement and passion for China's high speed rail. The entire HSR system blew me away and it was just...incredible. I prefer not flying when I am traveling domestically and have ample time, so I only flew at the end of my trip to go back to Shenzhen.

When in a city/town, there are many ways to get around. Too many!

• Subway: All cities have a very comprehensive subway system. All of these subway systems are connected to the major train stations. This made it easy for me to get off a train and immediately get on a subway to where I needed to go. Most of the subways I rode (in various cities) were incredibly spread out and went to so many places that you could find a station that is only a few mins walking from where you needed to go. The only downside to all this was carrying my giant backpack and sometimes I was just too tired. But luckily, there was always taxi-ing! Which was an option I often relied on, given that prices were quite affordable (though, not as affordable as a subway ride of course). Subway systems are quite new and standardized across different cities, meaning, the map and the look and feel of subways in the various big cities all look quite similar. This made it easy to navigate whether I was in Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Shenzhen, or Chongqing.

Purchasing subway tickets was straightforward. Just go to the machine, scan the QR code, pay the amount set for your destination, then you get a token.

• Busses: I didn't ride busses in the city honestly. I only rode busses in more touristic places in higher mountain areas where that was the primary mode of transport. Similarly straightforward. I look up on a map what bus to take, wait at the bus stop, get on the bus and you can scan the QR code and just key in the ticket price.

• Electric Bicycle or Scooter (or a regular bicycle): I loved seeing all the electric bicycles and scooters. In most big cities, many of the cars and scooters people owned and drove were electric. This means that you can barely hear traffic, all the vehicles are super quiet. Feels futuristic, honestly. In some cities, you can rent (electric) bicycles that tracks by the time and charges you accordingly. All you need is the corresponding app in which there are a couple; similar to cities in other places in the world, these bikes are owned by big companies. I had some trouble registering myself on the app as someone traveling on a compatriot card, but was able to figure it out. I ended up renting a regular bicycle in Kunming since I didn't quite feel ready to navigate the roads on an electric bicycle.

• Taxi!!! (using Didi Taxi): I taxi-ed quite often as a primary way to get around. It was super convenient, and especially so in more rural places where the public transport infrastructure was not as built out or the timing was more spread out. I used Didi Taxi app and had a very easy time with it. The only struggle was that I used Didi in English and Pinyin which made typing in addresses or finding places using Chinese characters difficult but I managed. There was typically a surplus of taxi drivers and Didi drivers so the wait time was never more than 5 minutes and the costs of even a 40 minute car ride was affordable (less than $10USD) but this depends on what city you're in. There were so many taxi drivers because I learned that people chose this as an option for employment for it's flexibility. I met someone who spent 4 years working in civil service then decided to stop and become a Didi driver because he preferred the flexibility and chill-ness of it. He's probably an exception, since it is a primary way many people, who don't have many other employment options, rely on to make money.

Miscellaneous

Map Apps

Google Maps does not work in China. All of Google suite won't work. I ended up using Apple maps the most. The map was great to use and navigate and the instructions it gave for transportation were spot on. Other foreigners I met used A Maps and Baidu maps. I had Baidu downloaded but it loaded too slowly on my phone and it wasn't a UX I was naturally used to, but if I ever had troubles with Apple maps, I'd use Baidu to double check. Baidu is also the site to "google"/look up information in the browser.

Food, Leisure, Travel Tips etc

My habits outside of China are to use Google maps to navigate but also to read reviews and find places to go. Apple Maps doesn't quite work this way, at least not in China. I ended up using Dianping mainly to look up nearby restaurants. It can be really overwhelming at times due to the amount of options available. Locals recommended using Xiaohongshu (XHS) to look up tips and recs for what to do on travels. I also struggled to make XHS work well for me mostly because I didn't have a strong affinity to scrolling or reading all the content (takes a lot of effort to read Chinese, especially simplified). But XHS is extremely popular, especially for the youth. Many people use XHS to organize car shares and find buddies to travel with. The primary way I looked for restaurant and travel recs was really just by asking in person. Chinese youth really do their research when it comes to what they're eating. I ended up just asking people for recommendations. I over-relied on my B+B hosts and people I met along the way for food and travel recs as well, so I didn't really spend too much time on these apps.

The only other app I used a decent amount was Meituan which is a food delivery app (along with many other functions that I didn't use). I think it's a multi-functional app one can use to book hotels and tours as well. I only used it when I got sick in Yangshuo (probably COVID) and didn't go out to eat. It was straightforward to look for restaurants, order food, and then the delivery driver would come straight to my room door and leave the food outside. I learned on my travels in China that it is incredibly normal and frequent for people to order food delivery. COVID and lockdown increased these habits and now the whole process works so smoothly. When ordering food or drinks outside, I see so many food delivery drivers also waiting for orders. It's a scale I have yet to see anywhere else.

That's it!

Hope this is all helpful. Perhaps things will have changed or be very different by the time you read this and go to China. Perhaps not!

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