Best Smart Phone apps for travelers in China

[Steve in USA]

http://blog.chinatravel.net/china-travel-tips-advice/best-iphone-apps-for-travelers-in-china.html

Plecto Optical View is really impressive:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pleco+optical&view=detail&mid=0BF7B4A20A127975A6000BF7B4A20A127975A600&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR

[Randy W]

They pretty much have the same apps available for android phones. I purchased a Samsung smart phone here in China, which interestingly enough, can't access the Google Play Store, due to Google's access restrictions for the Chinese market, unless I 'root' it and install a new ROM. My 虹Pad tablet (from Changhong) is much more open (in fact, came with 'root' access already allowed). There are a couple of apps that I bought from Google Play that will only run on the tablet.

The Samsung phone uses Mobile Market (a Chinese site) as it's primary app source. Amazon has an excellent app selection, and there are other sites as well.

I was able to install Google maps on my phone, fortunately, but it won't let me change the settings. The Google maps are the most detailed and up-to-date that I've seen anywhere. The phone came with AutoNavi's Amap (www.amap.com or http://ditu.amap.com/)as the default map application, but it uses only Chinese characters. Google map's updates lag behind by about 1 year.

 

update: Buy a foreign phone in Hong Kong which will have Google Play already installed. If you buy a Chinese phone in China, the vendor MAY be able to install Google Play for you - ask.

Pleco has several add-on apps to their dictionary (mostly a variety of dictionaries, but also a stroke order app and flash card app) - the optical character recognition is one of them. At $19 for the character recognition only, it's not cheap, but works fairly well. It's not really character recognition, but pattern-matching - in other words, it has to be in a similar font (to what the app expects), and must be viewed straight on. It won't work in low light or with low contrast, though.

Other China-related apps I use are iTranslate (an Apple translate app clone), Oanda currency converter, and the Chinsoft Chinese calendar app. The default calendar app for the phone includes a lunar calendar - you can set events to repeat by the lunar calendar.

Edited April 3, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and the AccuWeather app has weather reports for many Chinese cities, including accurate information for Yulin.

 

There is an air quality app available from the Dept. of State, but I didn't find it useful.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

What the article says about QQ isn't correct - it IS available in English - QQ International

 

I don't know about other VPN's, but at least ExpressVPN has an Android app.

[Randy W]

China trains, flights, and hotels - 3 different apps for iPhone or Android - http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/app.htm

[dnoblett]

WeChat https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wechat/id414478124?mt=8 Can chat, send pictures, and voice messages to other WeChat users, very popular in China.

[Randy W]

WeChat https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wechat/id414478124?mt=8 Can chat, send pictures, and voice messages to other WeChat users, very popular in China.

 

. . . and Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.mm&hl=en