Useful mobile apps for China
 

Hi all. I'm starting this thread because someone in our "FT people on WeChat" group demonstrated to me that simply having the ICBC app would spare me of in person bank visits (which suck). Basically, I am extremely judicious wrt apps because having many affects performance in a negative way, and some come along with evil baggage.

Having gotten that preamble out of the way, following is my personal list of useful apps:

ESSENTIAL
1. WeChat
-this falls into the 当当然然 category for the time being
2. Alipay
-yes, WeChat Pay works in 99% of the cases that Alipay works, but Alipay is a specialist, and your fellow patrons at Familymart will appreciate you for the 2 seconds saved
3. Reliable VPN or Shadowsocks

EXTREMELY USEFUL
4. Baidu Maps
-far more detailed than Google Maps
-download offline maps when on wifi --> useful when flying
5. Didi
6. Mobike
-you can swing both 5 and 6 within WeChat, but the native apps have a bit more functionality

MODERATELY USEFUL
7. explorebj, exploresh
-subway maps only, but non-invasive, and spares the need to resort to google
8. your Chinese bank's native app
-might save you a trip to a branch
9. Sina Weibo
-while many people think weibo is old school, it's still kind of important if you're interested in market trends

That's all I can think of for now, but I'm interested to hear thoughts from others.

I'd add OFO as an alternative to Mobike.

Since many banks work only with IE on a desktop, a mobile banking app can be useful. But it comes with all the usual hassle. (I upgraded to a new card with a chip and after two visits and hours at the bank they still can't get mobile banking to work with the new card.) Also, not sure whether Mainland banks are yet following the policy of blocking mobile apps on rooted phones.

Taobao can also be a useful app.

Pleco and Hanping if you're into Chinese.

Chinese input editor, like Google Pinyin.

12306 if you can book trains in Chinese.

Other travel apps -- ctrip, agoda, hotel chains, etc. -- depending on your preferences.

Maps.me as a backup map source.

Google Earth if you have a VPN.

Skype for calls outside China, though quality not 100 percent reliable.

For tourists who don't read or speak Chinese, Google Translate and/or Youdao Translate with (in advance) downloaded language packs.

Well, having just been charged 3RMB by OFO for a bike with a missing chain -- did they raise their rates or do they charge extra for broken bikes? -- and having read various reports about their financial difficulties, I decided it was time to request a deposit refund.

Just like Uber/Didi, the bike sharing market started out with 10 companies, and is now down to 2. The 2 will become 1, and then grow to 3 (e.g. Meituan and Ctrip will join the party).

Returning to the apps discussion, I am surprised that nobody has mentioned tt yet.

Was going to mention it, but thought I'd let you have the honors ;-)

Didi works through AliPay too. I avoid many of these apps purely because they tend to be poorly written and are often battery hogs.

I would like to add 大都会 (the Shanghai metro app) to the list. When it first launched last year, only Chinese ID numbers were supported, but now passports work too (this has actually been the case since last April apparently, but I just learned about it, thanks to a tip in the FT WeChat group).

If you have the latest iPhones and you plan to be in mainly Beijing or Shanghai, if you set the region to China, you can add Shanghai and/or Beijing metro cards to your Wallet app. You can sign up and everything right on the iPhone. The digital card is written into the NFC chip on your phone and you can choose your default metro card and use it without having to unlock your phone. Even if your phone powers off due to low battery, the metro card will still work.

(You can change the region back if you want after setup)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208539

I'd add the following

• Baidu Translate
• Google Translate
• Microsoft/Bing Translator
• Baidu
• Ctrip - both the international and local versions as I've seen cheaper prices
• YouKu - not really indispensable but like youtube with way longer ads
• QQ music

Yea, I added three different translators but they each have their strength and weaknesses. IMHO, Baidu is best at understanding spoken Mandarin. Google is very good, but gets more confused with my girlfriends Hunan accent. Add Microsoft just for completeness. WeChat uses the Microsoft translator for text since they have an open API.