@globustrotterin

_{Not getting lost in China –}

If you have never visited China but want to visit it one day, this will give you an insight about China. I, just like the rest of the world, grew up with western cell phone applications. However, traveling to China has been opening up my eyes on how different China works. 

First thing first that one needs to know is China is an electronic country. But, its servers are protected with firewalls, so your normal cell phone applications would not be working in the country. Good thing is you can still use them by continuing to read this article. 

LetsVPN

THIS or a VPN is what you need to have in your phone to make you be able to still use your western applications. Why? Because a VPN allows you to change your IP so you can browse even in China. But, during my research, I found out that not all VPN apparently works for China. LetsVPN was my choice for a two-week trip there and there were no issues with it. 

Alipay 

China is an electronic country. Meaning I for example never had to withdraw money during my trip in China because every transaction was done with Alipay. Yes, even street sellers use Alipay for paying. And using it was easy even as a foreigner. There is a translation for English and you can connect your credit card as a source of payment. 

Dee Dee 

Dee dee is an equivalent application to Uber. A good thing with Dee Dee is just like AliPay, you can set up the language to be English and connect your credit card for the payment. Plus, you no need to worry about communicating with your driver, since Dee Dee will automatically translate the conversation between you and driver.

Amap

Googl* Maps sucks at China since the locals don’t use them. So, I couldn’t find my hotel in the app. After trial and error in downloading and testing different maps, I found Amap to be helpful. My hotel was listed. I also could find out how to reach it from the airport. It works just like Googl* Maps outside China. 

Yandex Translate

Since Googl* Translate also doesn’t work properly in China, Yandex translation was my choice. It worked properly. Minus point would be, it just needs some time though depending on your cell phone signal. One could also use talk and hear through the app and it will translate. 

_{Note – There are no ads and promotion in this article. Writing is based on personal experience from March trip 2025 and is not legal advice. Some pictures are generated with AI.}