Gloria Yu, PhD
China runs on its own apps, and a little preparation at home removes most of the friction on the ground. The short version is payments, maps and translation. Only one of them can fail in a way you cannot fix on arrival, and that is the one to do first.
Payments, and why this one is urgent
Almost everything is paid for by phone, from a bowl of noodles to a museum ticket. Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept a foreign Visa or Mastercard now. Bind the card, then wait: verification can take a day or two to clear, which is precisely why it is done at home and not at the airport. If a card will not bind, Alipay’s Tour Pass lets you pre-load a balance and skip the wait. Link it, then make one small test payment before you fly.
Maps, and an honest word about Apple
Apple Maps does load and navigate on a mainland network, with an English interface and English turn-by-turn. It is also slow, and its record of actual businesses is materially incomplete, so it is not a practical tool for finding a place. Install Amap, which has the best data and an English interface under Settings, and note that a few of its features want a Chinese phone number. Baidu Maps is the stronger choice for subway and bus routing and also offers English and offline packs. Screenshot your hotel and first stops in Chinese characters before you fly, then drop the pins.
Translation
A camera-and-voice translator earns its place at a menu, a sign, or a two-line exchange. Microsoft Translator and Baidu Translate both download a Chinese pack for offline use. Pleco remains the one worth having for looking up a single character. Download the offline pack before you fly so it works the moment you land, rather than depending on a connection you may not have yet.
Your own apps and your own streaming
Set your devices up before departure so the services you use at home keep working when you land. This is ordinary preparation, and it is worth ten minutes of an evening rather than an hour of a first morning.
A practical note
On a designed journey your guide and driver carry the logistics, so these apps are a comfort layer rather than a survival kit. But a working map and a working wallet buy you the freedom to step away from the plan for an hour, and that hour is usually where the best of a day happens.