Essentials for travel in China

We just got back from a trip to China a few weeks ago so I was curious to see this list. These are pretty much exactly the apps we used but just a few things to mention that might help others:

-We used Nomad e-SIM and it also acted as a VPN, so no need to download a separate VPN. I was able to access everything the same as when I am at home. One thing to note is that you can't add data to the e-SIM after you arrive so buy more than you think you'll need just in case (it's not very expensive). I tested going on the hotel wifi once and even google.com was blocked.
-AliPay has "mini apps" within the app, including Didi- so if you have AliPay, no need to download and set up Didi separately.
-AliPay also has a transport mini app so you can easily download a free "travelcard" within the app for e.g. the Beijing metro, and it's all set up automatically and links to your AliPay payments. This worked seamlessly for us for the Beijing and Xi'an metros.
-I would also setup WeChat pay as a back-up. There was one restaurant where neither of our AliPays worked, and thankfully we were able to use WeChat pay.
-Installing WeChat requires either knowing someone who already has WeChat to verify you or using Facebook to log in. You can't verify someone if you've had WeChat less than a certain period of time (I think three months) so if two of you are going you can't have one set up WeChat and then just verify the other person right away.
-For translation I prefer DeepL and we also used Baidu. What's great about the translation apps is people working in the service industry (shops, restaurants, etc) all have them on their phone too so they can speak into them in Chinese and show you the English translation.

I hope this encourages more people to visit China- it's such an amazing place and we are already thinking about our next trip back.

Thanks for the link and other details. I have 6 weeks in China penciled in for Feb 2027. I'll certainly reference this thread for planning.
There have been a few great YouTubes about recent travel. Being a senior, I am enjoying The Retirement Travelers. They did a good job walking you through the trains and public transit as well as these apps to set up before arrival.

"Installing WeChat requires either knowing someone who already has WeChat to verify you or using Facebook to log in."

Did you install that before you went to China?

He mentions in the advice to download and install the apps before going as that's the way to get the "International" versions. Otherwise it was supposed to be more difficult (but not impossible).

Yes, we installed and registered/set up all apps and e-SIM before we left the UK. When you go to install WeChat on your phone, you are given two options- log in with Facebook, or set up a WeChat account. If you choose the latter, you get to a point where it gives you a QR code and says that someone else with WeChat has to verify you by scanning that code before you can finish setting it up. My husband was able to do this as his brother already had WeChat and could verify him. However, I understand there are limits to how many new accounts a user can verify at a time- so if they've just verified someone they can't immediately verify someone else. I was hoping once my husband had his WeChat account he could then just verify me, but we found out you can't verify a new user until you've been on WeChat a certain amount of time (I think it's three months). In the end I wound up just linking my Facebook as it seemed like the only option.

Sorry if that was a bit long, we found setting up WeChat surprisingly complicated!

Another thing to note for Amap- it's a great mapping app for getting around China. However, anytime you look up a hotel, it tries to take you to another service to give you info about booking that hotel. The challenge with this is that you need to "bind your phone number" to access that service, and it will only accept phone numbers from China and a few other countries. What this means in practice is when you are trying to look up where your hotel is to get directions back there, you get a pop up asking to "bind your phone number" before it will show you your hotel on the map and if you decline this pop up, the map won't show you where the hotel is. The way to get around this is to go to your "recently searched" and select the hotel name from there, then it will load on the map. This caused me a lot of frustration until I figured it out so I hope this helps others!