The Six Must-Have Apps for Traveling in China and Southeast Asia

Traveling around Asia, especially China, can be a little intimidating. Having the right apps on your phone can make a big difference in your comfort level and how easy it is to navigate your way around. These six apps should be part of your toolbox.

To get around the Great Firewall that blocks Gmail, Facebook, and other U.S. apps in China, I recommend ordering a Hong Kong SIM card from Amazon (affiliate link) before you leave.

Download the Google Translate language files you need so they’re available offline.

And in case you have any connection issues while you’re in the region, you should download these apps while still at home.

1. Google Translate | This is an obvious one, but be sure to also download the language files you need so they’re available offline. To do this, just click the arrow button next to the language you want in the language selection menu.

The live conversation feature in the app was also tremendously helpful.

2. DiDi | DiDi is the Uber of China and is a very handy way to get around town. It is especially helpful if you don’t speak Chinese, since the app is entirely in English! They even have a great feature where you can text your driver and it will automatically translate between English and Chinese. This app was a great crutch to lean on when we first arrived in China and were not yet confident enough to try talking and negotiating with regular cab drivers. You should download it before you leave home, set up your account and add a credit card to make sure it all works before you arrive.

The Baidu Maps app

3. Baidu Maps | Unfortunately DiDi is not available everywhere or at certain times of day. That means you’ll inevitably have to take a regular cab at some point, and none of those drivers speak English. Since Google Maps is not entirely accurate in China (and is blocked for Chinese users), you should download Baidu Maps to make sure you get where you’re going. On two separate occasions, our cab drivers actually put my phone on their dashboard and used the live navigation in Baidu Maps to get us to our destination! The app is entirely in Chinese, but the interface is very similar to Google Maps so is pretty intuitive.

I recommend setting up a Chinese keyboard on your phone where you can either draw the characters with your finger or type Chinese in English letters, known as pinyin. But even without that, you can type a fair number of destinations in English and get relevant results. Just make sure you have a copy of the name of your hotel (or other destination) and its address in Chinese characters so you can recognize it, along with the pinyin so you know how to pronounce it.

4. Trip.com | If you plan to take any trains while you’re in China, you’ll find the Trip.com app very helpful. They have complete schedules for every train in the country, high-speed or otherwise, and you can buy your tickets right in the app. Since Chinese train stations can be quite confusing and ticket tellers don’t have a lot of time to deal with bewildered foreigners, choosing your train and paying through the app will save you a lot of hassle.

5. Grab | Grab is the Uber of Southeast Asia, and we used it extensively in Malaysia and Vietnam. It is super cheap and very convenient. You can set up an account from anywhere if you want to pay with cash, but for some reason they don’t let you add a credit card until you are in a country where Grab is available. That means you’ll have to wait until you arrive in Southeast Asia to finish setting up your account.

6. WhatsApp | WhatsApp, the popular international messaging app, is blocked in China. However, our hotels in Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong used it as their primary means of communicating with us. So it’s a good idea to have available if you’re traveling anywhere in the region outside of mainland China.

7. Skype | Skype is also blocked in China if you’re using WiFi or a Chinese SIM card. However, if you’re using a Hong Kong SIM card as I recommend above, or if you’ve paid the roaming fees to keep using your home country’s SIM, you can still use Skype. Before leaving home, you should add about $10 to your Skype account so you can use it to call regular phone numbers rather than only other Skype users. This is necessary because the Hong Kong SIM card (like most available SIMs we saw in the region) only includes data, not regular voice calls. Having Skype really saved us when we were lost and needed to call one of our hotels!

With these apps in tow, your trip to China and Southeast Asia should be just a little easier. Safe travels, and 一路顺风!