Essential apps for China travel

The short list

Start from the job, not the app

The Ministry of Commerce guide for foreigners, published through the State Council’s English portal, tells visitors which app to use for each task. Follow that structure and the list collapses to six jobs.

• Pay for thingsAlipay, WeChat (Weixin Pay) or the UnionPay app, with a card bound to the wallet. Prices are in RMB; mobile payment, bank cards and cash are all recognised routes.
• Get from A to B in a cityAlipay or WeChat for metro and bus QR codes and for hailing a car; the Didi-Greater China app, which the guide says supports registration with a foreign phone number and an international credit card.
• Find the placeA map app with local coverage. The guide for foreigners names no map, so this is the one job where our recommendation rests on the operator’s own release rather than on government guidance.
• Buy a train ticketChina Railway’s 12306 English website, the 12306 app or the booking hotline, using the passport you will travel on.
• Book a room or an airport transferTrip.com’s website, app or the TripHotels mini program inside Alipay, paid directly with an international bank card.
• Clear entry formalitiesThe National Immigration Administration’s arrival-card channels: its website, government service platform, the “NIA 12367” app, WeChat or Alipay mini programmes, or a QR code scanned on your phone at the port.

Notice what is not on that list. Nothing requires a Chinese bank account, a mainland phone number or a domestic identity document. Where an app asks for one, that is a signal to switch to the official website, the hotline or a staffed counter rather than to invent a number.

Job one

The payment wallet, and why it reaches further than payment

Official guidance says foreigners can download Alipay, WeChat or the UnionPay app, register with a foreign or Chinese mobile number, and bind a card carrying the Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, American Express, JCB, Diners Club or Discover logo. Payment then works in two directions: you scan the merchant’s collection code, or you show your payment code.

The part that surprises first-timers is how much of the rest of the list lives inside that one wallet. The guide for foreigners describes using Alipay as the worked example: open Transport, select City, complete the identity verification, and you get a QR code for the metro, or a separate one for buses which you scan when getting on and off. The same Transport area is where the guide sends you to tap Taxi and enter a pickup and destination. In WeChat the documented path is Me → Services → Mobility or Ride Hailing. Mini programs inside the two wallets cover car rental and hotel booking, and airlines are listed as bookable through a WeChat mini program.

Alipay has expanded its interface translation from Chinese and English to 16 languages, with the translation applied across in-app services such as taxi hailing, hotel booking, scenic-spot tickets, public transport and checking exchange rates. That is a real argument for the wallet over a standalone app for each task — fewer places for a language barrier to reappear.

Two cautions. First, one linked card is not a plan: card approval is handled by the payment product and your issuing bank, and the scope of accepted brands, limits and charging standards vary by product. Second, person-to-person features are a different matter — Weixin Pay’s guidance for international cards describes everyday merchant purchases and says features such as red packets and transfers are not supported with an international card.

Read the full payment stack, with dated limits and fees →

Or follow the step-by-step Alipay foreign-card setup →

Job two

Maps and navigation

Amap, the Alibaba-owned mapping and local-services platform, rolled out a multilingual version of its map service on 9 July 2025, adding 14 languages alongside Chinese and English: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Malay, Indonesian and Vietnamese. It had already become, in January 2025, the first domestic platform with an English version built for international users, according to the same release carried by the Shanghai municipal government.

What the release says it gives you:

• Translated names and descriptions for tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels and other key destinations.
• The full navigation suite — driving, walking, cycling and public transport — in the same interface.
• An English-language ride-hailing interface, where you can book from several providers with one tap and see pickup locations and fare estimates in English.
• Availability on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A later update reported by China Tourism News, and republished by a Hebei government culture and tourism site on 20 July 2026, described the English AMAP app’s ride-hailing function as supporting one-tap sign-in with phone numbers from 65 countries and regions, with estimated arrival times, traffic-light countdowns and dynamic route selection carried over into the English app.

How to use a map app without over-trusting it

Official guidance for foreign visitors names no mapping app at all. That is worth taking seriously in both directions: the pre-installed map you know may be the weakest one here, and the strongest local map is still only as good as the address you typed into it. Search destinations by their Chinese name where you can, check that the pin lands on the building you mean rather than a nearby road, and keep the hotel address in Chinese in a note you can read offline. For ride-hailing, an exact pin and a numbered exit matter far more than the route line.

Jobs three and four

Trains, metro, bus and taxi

Trains: 12306, and why the app earns its space

The guide for foreigners lists three official channels for buying tickets — China Railway’s 12306 English website, the 12306 app and the booking hotline — and confirms that a passport is an accepted document for real-name ticketing. Identity verification can complete automatically when you enter your name, nationality and document number, or you can upload a photo of the passport information page for manual checks, or have it done at a station ticket office.

The app is not strictly necessary, but it does something the website alone cannot. 12306’s English FAQ states that passengers who registered on 12306.cn and completed facial identity verification through the mobile app can then change or refund, on the website, their own tickets that were bought at a station window, a ticket machine, an agency or by another person. If you only ever have an account, the app closes a real gap. The FAQ also warns that queues are likely at ticket windows, security, identity-verification counters and ticket gates.

Two details that catch travellers: the English website accepts only valid foreign passports, and a passenger left in the “to be verified” state must take the original passport used for the purchase to a station counter before the paper-ticket step can proceed. A booking confirmation is not a travel document — the passport you entered is.

Metro, airport and bus

The guide notes that 55 cities have metro lines. Single journeys can be bought at a ticket office or self-service machine, and frequent travellers can buy a metro pass at a station ticket office using a passport, paid by card, cash or a mobile app. Alipay and some metro operators’ own apps support passing the gates with a QR code, obtained through the Transport screen described above.

Beijing is the exception worth knowing: the guide describes it as the first city on the mainland allowing metro fares to be paid by swiping a foreign-issued bank card, so overseas Mastercard and Visa cards can be tapped at fare gates across 27 urban rail lines and the suburban S2 line without buying a ticket or downloading an app. On buses, the documented options are RMB cash with small change prepared in advance, a bus card bought at an operator’s service outlet with your passport, or the Alipay bus code scanned on boarding and again on alighting.

Taxis and rental cars

For a car, the guide lists Alipay, WeChat or the Didi-Greater China app, and describes the last of these as supporting foreigners registering with foreign phone numbers and international credit cards before booking Express, Taxi, Premier or Luxe services. Trip.com is listed for pre-booked airport shuttle appointments paid with an international bank card.

Driving yourself is the one item here that does not fit a “just download it” framing. Car rental needs a passport or Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, a valid Chinese driving licence and an international or domestic credit card, and first-time renters are told to have identity information verified at least one working day in advance. Short-stay visitors can apply for a provisional driving permit valid three months, extendable to a maximum of one year for longer stays, at a public security traffic management service hall. China has mutual recognition arrangements covering direct driving or licence exchange without a test with France, Serbia, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates.

Job five

Hotels and flights without a domestic account

For accommodation, the guide for foreigners lists Trip.com — website, app or the TripHotels mini program inside Alipay — with direct payment using an international bank card, and notes that reservations can also be made by telephone or other means. At check-in, hotels register you using your passport or Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card at the reception, and on-property payment options are listed as RMB cash, bank card, Alipay and Weixin Pay.

Two sentences in that section deserve more attention than they get. Whether a hotel takes Mastercard, Visa or another international card is something the guide tells you to ask about in advance rather than assume; and some hotels accept Apple Pay and PayPal, again subject to asking first. A booking confirmed in an app is not a guarantee about the deposit desk at midnight.

Domestic flights can be booked on an airline’s official website, app or WeChat mini program, or through a ticketing platform, with payment via Alipay, Weixin Pay or UnionPay bank cards. Chinese and foreign bank cards are described as accepted at the online and offline ticketing channels of platforms and of airlines operating international flights. Airports themselves take cash, Weixin Pay, Alipay or cards, subject to the airline’s policy.

After arrival, accommodation registration is not an app job if you stay in a hotel — the hotel handles it. Travellers staying somewhere else must register at the local police station within 24 hours of arrival with their passport and the rental contract or property ownership certificate.

Job six

The arrival card, and the one address worth typing yourself

From 20 November 2025, foreign nationals may submit arrival-card information online before travelling to China. The Chinese embassy’s published notice lists the official channels: the National Immigration Administration’s website, its government service platform, the “NIA 12367” app, WeChat or Alipay mini programmes, or by scanning the arrival-card filling code on a mobile device.

If you cannot file in advance, the same notice gives three on-arrival routes: scan the arrival-card QR code with your phone at the port, use the self-service terminals, or fill in a paper card. So the app is convenient here, not compulsory — which is the most useful thing to know about this particular form.

Seven categories are exempt

The notice lists holders of a Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card; holders of a Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents (non-Chinese citizens); holders of a group visa or those eligible for group visa-free entry; persons in direct transit within 24 hours who do not leave the designated port area; persons arriving and departing on the same cruise ship; persons entering through the e-channel; and foreign crew on exit-entry transport vehicles.

Use the address, not a search result

For an official form with a deadline attached, the route you take matters. The submission address published in the notice above is s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC/entry-registation-home. Type it or copy it from this page rather than following a search result for “China arrival card”, and if a page looks like the official one but asks you to register an account or pay a service charge, stop. The published information line for the whole system is +86-10-12367.

Note that the submission page is a browser application, so it needs JavaScript enabled to display; the channels listed in the notice are the reference point for what should appear there.

Before departure

The install order that actually works

Downloading is not the same as having it ready. Every step below is worth finishing at home, on your own network, with a real ability to wait for a text message.

1. 1

   Decide how the phone will get data

   Roaming, a travel eSIM or a local SIM. A local SIM needs your passport at an operator’s service office, which is an arrival-day task with a queue in it, so do not plan on it being ready before your first journey. Check device compatibility and whether your handset is carrier-unlocked before buying an eSIM, and keep the activation instructions somewhere readable offline.

2. 2

   Finish one payment wallet completely

   Register, complete the passport identity step, bind a card your issuer will approve, then make one small test payment. Add a second card on a different network before you travel, not after the first one fails in a shop.

3. 3

   Install the map and save your addresses

   Open it once, let it find your location, and save the first hotel and each city’s key sights with Chinese address text.

4. 4

   Create the 12306 account early and verify the passport

   Do this days before you need a seat, so that a “to be verified” result is an admin task rather than a scramble. Use the exact name and number from the passport data page, and travel on that same document.

5. 5

   Pick one ride-hailing route

   The Didi-Greater China app, or the Taxi screen inside the wallet you already finished. One is enough; open it once so the permission prompts are out of the way.

6. 6

   Write down the no-app version of the first day

   Cash in small notes, a paper address in Chinese, the official taxi queue and the emergency numbers — 110 for police, 119 for fire, 120 for medical — all of which are listed in the guide for foreigners alongside the instruction to report a lost passport to the local police station immediately.

Editorial choices

What this list deliberately leaves out

A second payment wallet as a co-primary. Redundancy is worth having; two half-finished setups are worse than one finished one. Add the second wallet after the first one completes a payment.

A dedicated translation app. The guide for foreign visitors does not name one, and the translation capabilities we could actually verify are built into the products above — Alipay’s 16 interface languages applied across its services, and the in-app translation described in Amap’s multilingual ride-hailing. We did not find dated official confirmation of any third-party translator’s current availability in the mainland, so there is no recommendation here rather than a guess.

Food delivery and resident lifestyle apps. They are genuinely useful in China and mostly pointless for a short visit, because they assume a local number, a domestic address format and a payment method already working. Those are jobs one to four.

Any app we could not tie to a stated function. If a claim here rests on the operator’s own release rather than on government guidance — the map section is the clearest case — we have said so in the text instead of presenting it as official advice.

Common questions

Related guides