Which apps do I need in China?

Quick answer

Get Alipay and WeChat before you fly — those two are the foundation, and half the other services run inside them as mini-programs, so you often do not need a separate app at all. Then add: Trip.com for trains and hotels, DiDi for taxis, Amap for navigation, and Meituan for food delivery and local reviews. Everything below is one page each.

The two that decide the trip

Alipay and WeChat are not really "payment apps" any more — they are operating systems for daily life in China. Trains, taxis, food delivery, museum tickets, hospital registration, the QR code for the metro gate: most of it is a mini-program inside one of those two. Set them up at home, with your own phone number and your own bank within reach, and the rest of this list gets much easier. The step-by-step is on How do I pay in China?

Getting around

Trains

How do I book and ride a high-speed train?

Your passport is the ticket. Where to book, how the station actually works, and the one mistake people make with station names.

City transport

How do I use the metro and buses?

One QR code in Alipay covers both, so you never stand at a ticket machine again.

Taxis

How do I call a taxi?

DiDi, in English, with no Chinese needed at the kerb. What to set before you tap and what to do when the driver calls.

Navigation

Which map app should I use?

Amap, and why the English one you already have is not enough out here.

Eating and doing

Delivery

How does food delivery work?

Meituan — thirty minutes to your hotel door, and the Chinese-only interface is not actually a barrier.

Restaurants

How do I find a good restaurant?

Meituan and Dianping, and how to read them when you cannot read them.

Things to do

How do I find what's worth seeing?

Xiaohongshu and Meituan — the two places locals actually look before they go anywhere.

Buying things

Hotels

How do I book a hotel?

Trip.com — and the rule about foreign passports that catches people at the front desk.

Shopping

How do I shop online?

Electronics from JD, everything else from Taobao. Plus the one habit that avoids most fakes.

One thing to get straight

This cluster is about living in China as a visitor — buying a train ticket, ordering noodles, finding a chemist at nine at night. It is not about paying for a trip with me: that is a different conversation, and the arrangements are made directly between us. Nothing on these pages is an offer of a payment method for anything I sell.

Do I need a Chinese phone number?

Not for most of it, as long as you go through Alipay or WeChat — mini-programs use the account you already have. A few standalone apps do assume a Chinese number at sign-up, and I say so on those pages. If you want the least friction, a short-term SIM is worth having; see staying connected.

Can I do all this with my own phone, in English?

Mostly yes, and better than it used to be. Alipay and Trip.com have proper English. Meituan, Dianping and Ctrip are Chinese-first, but all three have a translation button or run inside an app that does — the individual pages explain the workaround. The tap-by-tap pictures for switching Alipay, WeChat, DiDi and Amap to English are on the payment, taxi, maps and food-delivery pages.

How much of this should I set up before I fly?

Alipay, WeChat, and a payment card that works. Those three, at home. Everything else can be downloaded on arrival.

From using these apps here every day for years, not from their marketing pages. App interfaces change often, and where I rely on something official I say so — if you find something has moved, write to me and I will correct it. Related: how to pay · staying connected · all essentials

Which apps do I actually need in China?

The two that decide the trip

Getting around

Eating and doing

Buying things

One thing to get straight

Where this comes up