Gloria Yu, PhD
Download Amap before you fly and switch it to English in the settings. It is the map app that works properly in China, and the one that knows what is behind the doors. Google Maps does not function on a mainland network. Apple Maps loads and navigates, so keep it for orientation, but it will not find you dinner.
Which map app works in China?
Amap, which you may also see called Gaode. It has an English interface, reached through Settings, then Language, then English, and the data underneath it is the good data: the alleys, the small streets, which floor of the mall a shop is on.
The translation is occasionally strange and the voice that reads the directions has an accent. Neither will slow you down.
One thing to know: some individual features inside it ask for a mainland phone number. The core of it, searching and navigating, does not.
Does Google Maps work in China?
No. Tiles, search and navigation all fail on a mainland network. Do not plan around it and do not spend arrival evening trying to make it behave.
Is Apple Maps good enough in China?
For knowing where you are, yes. For knowing where to go, no.
This is a distinction worth being precise about, because it is the one that catches people out. Apple Maps loads on a mainland network, gives you an English interface and English turn-by-turn, and will get you from a hotel to a station perfectly well. What it does not have is a complete picture of what is actually there. The businesses are patchy, the small places are missing, and it is slow enough in use that you stop reaching for it.
So it is a compass, not a guide. That assessment is ours, from using it rather than from reading about it.
How do you set Amap to English?
Settings, then Language, then English. Do it at home, with the app freshly installed, in the same sitting as your payment apps and your eSIM. Every one of these jobs is easier on your own wifi with nothing else happening.
Why this is the day the week pays you back
Stand on a lane in Chengdu at seven in the evening. There are four doors on your left. None of them has a sign in a language you read, one has a red lantern over it, one has crates outside, and behind exactly one of them is a room with eight tables where the family at the nearest one has ordered better than you are about to.
That is the whole problem of travelling well in China, and it is a data problem before it is anything else. The payment apps get you through the transaction. The eSIM gets the phone online. The map is the layer that turns a street into a choice.
Tomorrow is the last of the setup, and then the week turns to what you do with it.
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Do I need to download a map app before going to China?
Yes, and download it at home. Install Amap, open it once, and set the language to English through Settings, Language, English. Doing it on your own wifi before departure means arriving with a working map rather than trying to set one up in an airport at the end of a long flight.
Does Apple Maps work in China?
It does. It loads on a mainland network, gives an English interface and English turn-by-turn directions, and it will get you between two places you already know. Its weakness is discovery: the record of what businesses exist and where they are is materially incomplete, so treat it as orientation and use Amap to find anything.
Is Amap available in English?
Yes, through Settings, then Language, then English. The interface, search and directions all run in English after that. Some translations of place names read oddly and the spoken directions have an accent, which are cosmetic issues rather than practical ones.
Do I need a Chinese phone number to use Amap?
Not for the core of it. You can install it, set it to English, search and navigate on the number you already have. Some individual features do ask for a mainland number, and you are unlikely to need them on a first trip.