Verified guide

Essential China Apps for First-Time Visitors

The core apps to download before traveling to China, organized by before you fly, airport, hotel, first restaurant, and first taxi moments.

Phone showing recognizable payment, map, ride-hailing, train booking, translation, and messaging app icons

Last verified: 2026-07-05. Travel, payment, app, and immigration rules can change. Use this guide as planning help, then confirm critical details with official providers before travel.

Before you fly

Do the boring account work at home, while your usual phone number, email, password manager, and bank app are all available. Arrival day is not the time to debug verification codes.

Install Alipay and WeChat, then confirm you can still log in after restarting the phone.
Add your card if the wallet supports your account, then save a backup payment method.
Install a map app and save your first hotel in Chinese and English.
Save airline, hotel, train, and attraction booking confirmations offline.
Set up roaming, eSIM, or another mobile data plan before boarding.

At the airport

At the airport, your app stack should answer three questions: can I get online, can I pay, and can I reach the hotel without explaining everything in English?

Turn on mobile data before entering the taxi, Didi, or metro decision point.
Open your payment app once and confirm it loads normally.
Open your saved hotel address and keep it visible as a screenshot.
If using ride-hailing, confirm the pickup area before requesting the car.

At the hotel

Hotel check-in is where passport, booking, payment, and address details meet. Keep the hotel desk as your troubleshooting base before you wander into smaller shops or side streets.

Show the booking confirmation and passport used for the reservation.
Ask the hotel desk to confirm the Chinese address card for taxi use.
Test whether your card or wallet can handle a deposit or room-related payment.
Save the hotel phone number and front-desk address before going out.

First restaurant and first taxi

Your first restaurant and first taxi are the two places where app preparation becomes real. Make these simple on day one.

Pick a nearby restaurant where you can leave easily if payment or language becomes difficult.
Use wallet payment first if it works, then card or cash as fallback.
For taxi or Didi, show the destination in Chinese and keep the map pin ready.
Do not combine a complex dinner reservation and a hard-to-find address on arrival night.

What paid users get

The ready-made Survival Pack includes a general essential-apps reference organized around payment, maps, translation, ride hailing, rail or flight, and messaging, with offline backup prompts. It is not tailored to a buyer's city or itinerary.

Next step

Turn this guide into a city-specific plan.

Start with your landing city, then preview a free itinerary. The paid pack adds payment, arrival, transport, phrase, and printable offline checklists. It is not a personalized itinerary.

Build my China arrival plan See the $9.90 Survival Pack