Use Meituan — the biggest delivery platform in the country, and the one worth learning. Do not start with the standalone app: open the Meituan mini-program inside Alipay or WeChat instead. It signs you in with the account you already have, pays with the card you already linked, and — in Alipay — has a floating translate button that turns the menus into English as you browse. Then it is: pick a restaurant, pick the dishes, confirm the address, pay. The food arrives in about half an hour.
Meituan has no language setting — the standalone app is Chinese-only, and no amount of tapping changes that. The trick is the floating translate button inside the mini-program. Here is where it lives:
- Inside Alipay: open the Meituan mini-program and tap the blue floating 译 button — the page translates as you browse.
- Inside WeChat: open the Meituan mini-program, tap the ⋯ capsule at the top right, then 翻译 (Translate). It works best when your phone's system language is already English.
Why the mini-program and not the app
The main Meituan app is Chinese-only, and its sign-up normally expects a Chinese mobile number, which a short trip may not give you. The mini-program routes around both problems: you are already inside an account you set up at home, and you pay from the card linked there. Depending on your app version and the city you are in, the mini-program may behave slightly differently — this is the kind of thing that changes, so if a screen does not match what I describe, try the other platform before deciding it cannot be done.
If neither works, ask the front desk to order for you. It takes them two minutes and they do it for guests constantly.
What you actually need ready
Your hotel's address in Chinese characters. Not a translation — the characters, copied from your booking confirmation or photographed from a card at reception. This is the step that decides whether the order works, and it is worth getting before you are hungry.
The room number, in the remarks field, and a note to call when they arrive. At larger hotels the rider often cannot come up; the food will be left at the lobby desk or in a pickup cabinet, and the app will tell you which. Watching the rider's dot on the map come down your street is oddly satisfying the first time.
How to choose well
Two numbers on every listing tell you most of what you need. Monthly sales — a restaurant doing thousands of orders a month is delivering constantly and knows what it is doing. The review photos, which show the food as it actually arrives rather than the marketing shot. Between those two you can order from a Chinese-only menu with reasonable confidence.
Browse by picture if you have to. The listings are unusually visual, and a photo of a bowl of noodles is a photo of a bowl of noodles in any language. For the rest, translate a screenshot.
Before you pay
Check three things in the order summary: the delivery fee, the packaging fee (normal here, charged per item, and small), and the restaurant's minimum order — below which you simply cannot check out. If a coupon is offered, apply it before confirming; it shaves a little off. None of these are big numbers, and all of them are shown before you commit.
What you can get besides dinner
Far more than takeaway. The same network delivers groceries, fruit, medicine from the pharmacy, flowers, coffee, and most of the big fast-food chains. On a wet evening in a town where you do not feel like going out, this is the reason you do not have to. Meituan also does restaurant bookings, hotel rooms and local reviews — which is why it appears on several pages in this cluster.
Questions I get on this one
Is there an English version?
Do I need a Chinese phone number?
Will the rider call me?
What if I am out in the mountains?
Are there alternatives?
From ordering this way here constantly, and from what guests report when they try it themselves. Platform rules and app screens change; verify before relying on a detail. Related: finding a restaurant · how to pay · all the apps · all essentials