Planning to travel to China for holiday? or a short-term stay such as a internship, study?
Then you should read this below and prepare for your trip.

**1- WeChat **

China is the number 1 communication app here and a replacement for WhatsApp, as it seems to be blocked out most of the times. It’s a great alternative to use when your in China especially when you meet people you can keep in touch through this app.
Besides this there are tons of other options available on WeChat, but as a traveler these might not be too useful.
- Payments can be done with WeChat and is being used daily by most people here. You can practically pay everything with WeChat nowadays here, in restaurants, cabs, street vendors etc.
- Ordering food is also being used most of the times by scanning a QR-code in a restaurant/bar and a menu will pop-up where you can instantly order/pay whereafter a waiter will deliver you the food to the table where you’re sitting. how convenient right?

2- Dianping

This app is similar to apps such as Openrice, Yelp, and many others but mainly used in China. Wherever you are in China, you can find reviews, pictures, and other relevant information of every restaurant/bar/entertainment/hotel/tourist attractions and many more. Even though it is in Chinese only, but still easy to use even for people who can’t read Chinese.

3- DIDI/UBER

The most used car service in China and very necessary if you want to get around in here. You can get a ride everywhere and they’ll pick you up within minutes. Uber is also an option for foreigners to use here, as most Didi drivers have Uber also. Their service and quality condition is consistent and reliable.

4- RED 小红书

This app is an social e-commerce shopping app and lets your explore content like Instagram and Pinterest where you can directly purchase products. But it can also be used to discover new and trendy places where only locals know of. This app can be used as a guide to find good spots where you can take nice beautiful pictures!

5- Baidu maps

You probably are used to Google Maps, but up until now it is still not available in China. A great and good alternative is Baidu maps. It’s very accurate for any mapping direction.
Besides that you can also use it for popular attractions/restaurants/ near your location! Great for anyone who is in a city where you’ve never been.

EXTRA

VPN service
In-case you’re active on social medias such as Instagram, twitter and watch regularly Youtube or even want to access some of your crypto accounts which could only be accessible outside of China, make sure to get a VPN service ready before you enter!
There are many choices of VPN services and i wouldn’t recommend the free VPN as they are unreliable.
Good, fast, reliable VPNs are: ExpressVPN, Pandapow, NordVPN in my opinion
there’s probably a few more but these are the ones that I’ve used before and am still using Pandapow and NordVPN at the moment.

Get your mobile ready with these few apps and your good to go Mainland China!
Any questions regarding China, feel free to ask them.