Seen at the Kottke site.
from kottke:
Kevin Kelly shares some essential apps & services for independent travel in China. “A good rule of thumb is to download your (Chinese) apps outside of China before you leave, because most are behind their great firewall.”
Kelley site:
"Essentials for Independent Travel in China"
https://kk.org/thetechnium/essentials-for-independent-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.
