Expat-friendly or Unfriendly? What Do You Know about These APPs?

Expat-friendly or Unfriendly? What Do You Know about These Chinese APPs?

Whether you live long-term in China, or just visit here for new experience, in this digital age, it's impossible to go far without a lot of APPs. We’ve compiled a list of apps you must download, some of them can be a pain in ass, but you still need them to make life easier.

Do you find any other useful APPs or want to complain about any APPs that are unfriendly to expat groups? Leave us a comment below!

WeChat (which everybody has, foreign or not)

WeChat is China’s most popular messaging app, but it offers more than just chats or office communication. It's a combination of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram -- you can use it to do almost everything, such as ordering food, booking flights and hotels, ec. The most important thing is, in most places in China, you now need to scan via WeChat and show green code to prove your health condition.

WeChat offers translation in the messaging system, though it can be a bit ridiculous and causes confusion sometimes... (Check our previous article --

Thanks WeChat, But I Really Don't Need to Kill Myself). 

But in a word, you just can’t live one day in China without this app...

Google Translator

Translator, of course, otherwise how can you cope with daily life if you know nothing about Chinese? But if you do not have a stable VPN, say bye to Google and use the app recommended below...

Pleco

Pleco is one of the most popular and most well-designed English-Chinese dictionary and the best language-learning apps.

There're various input ways, including Pinyin input, English words, handwriting.

Which's more convenient is that it supports OCR (Optical Character Recognition) -- you can look up unknow Chinese words using phone camera, or tap-lookup words in a still image. 

The native speaker pronunciation can be very helpful to those who are interested in picking up Chinese and practice pronunciation.

Didi car-hailing

If you’re stuck somewhere with no taxis in sight, then DiDi is the taxi hailing service app of choice. It’s pretty much the Chinese version of Uber.

The app can automatically translate English text into Chinese and vice versa, so don’t worry about communicating with your driver -- it allows you to specify your destinationwitho ut needing any Chinese. 

However, many have found that with an overseas ID, they could not download DiDi in AppStore. Instead, they must call cabs from WeChat service or Map...

Baidu Map/AMap: city navigation app

Maybe you’re accustomed to using Google Maps, but it is not really accurate in China, even if you have a VPN. Therefore, it’s better to download a Chinese map application on your phone. Baidu Maps and AMap are the most used map apps, and they are more accurate, up-to-date and reliable for traveling the whole country. The apps will show you the routes to get you where you need to be.

However, it's not perfect, especially if some roads have been recently rebuilt. Better have a few maps in your phone, so you don't need to just rely on one specific app and get frustrated.

Mobike: cashless bike-sharing app

Registration can be cumbersome  if you don’t have a Chinese ID, but once you get past that it works fine. Available in English.

Meituan/Eleme delivery

Meituan Dianping and Eleme, 2 food delivery giants in China. The apps are in Chinese so if you can’t read Chinese characters you can consider getting the Sherpa app instead. The app is in English but also more expensive to use.

Taobao or JD

No need to say more when it comes to online shopping. 

Generally, you can use Taobao for everything, no joke, but JD is a saver place for you to order high-quality or expensive products such as electronics, applications. Only problem is that they are in Chinese and web translating can be confusing somehow. But they have a great image search feature where the apps helps you find what your looking for based on a picture.

Need more info on online shopping platforms in China? Check our previous article: How to Take Advantage in the Recent Shopping Spree?

Ctrip

Ctrip is a highly-rated website/app for travelling.

You can switch the language into English, so there shouldn't be any language barrier. The only problem might be -- it is a bit opaque about which of its listed hotels will take foreigners, so if you find the hotel does not state this, especially during the pandemic, it's better to call their helpline for detailed policy.

China Train Booking

Booking China train tickets is not that easy for non-Chinese speakers so this is hugely useful. It allows you to check trains timetables and book tickets online in a very simple way. The App supports credit card, PayPal, WeChat, and Alipay. After booking successfully, you will receive your pickup codes for tickets collection, delivery service also available for those who want to save some time.

Source: Quora, Google, Pandaily

If you are in lockdown or quarantine and need any help, please contact us to get your answers. AnyHelper is always ready to help you! All for free!

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