The room is full, the food is good, you cannot order

How do you read a Chinese menu without speaking Chinese?

You point a phone camera at it. Any decent translation app will read text through the lens and put the English over the top of it, which is the only method that works on a handwritten board, because there is nothing to type.

Pleco is the one most long-term visitors end up with, and it is worth having whichever else you choose.

Do the install at home. Then, and this is the part people skip, point it at something in your own kitchen. A jar label will do. You want the first time you use it in earnest to not also be the first time you have ever used it, standing up, in a full room, with a waiter waiting.

Why install a translation app before you fly?

Because it is five minutes at home and an errand once you are there.

That is the whole week in one line, and this is the clearest example of it. Everything on this list can in principle be done after you land. All of it is worse then: you are tired, the wifi is unfamiliar, and you are doing setup instead of having dinner.

Does it matter whether I have an iPhone or an Android?

Yes, and this is the one place in the week where the answer genuinely differs.

Google's services are not reachable on a mainland network. The App Store is. So if you have an iPhone and you arrive without something you need, you can still add it. If you have an Android phone, the shop you would normally get apps from is one of the things you cannot reach, so arriving without the app is a real problem rather than an inconvenience.

Install before you fly either way. On an Android phone, treat it as compulsory.

What do you do when the app gets it wrong?

Order it anyway.

Camera translation on a handwritten board is approximate, and half of what it hands you will be a dish name that means nothing in English regardless of how well it was translated. Fish-flavoured shredded pork is correctly translated and tells you nothing.

So use it to find the ingredient you want and the cooking method you like, then stop reading and point. The room is full for a reason, and the family at the next table has already done your research.

What the week bought you

Five layers, five evenings of setup, and none of them individually interesting. Together they buy you the first evening: you find the lane, you walk through the right door, you read the board, you pay by holding up a phone, and nothing about any of it takes up any of your attention.

That is the trip starting on day one instead of day three.

This weekend we turn to the two things worth arranging before you go that are not about the phone at all. If you would rather hand the whole list to somebody else, book a call and we will take it from here.

What is the best translation app for China?

The important feature is camera translation, because Chinese menus are frequently handwritten and there is nothing to type. Pleco is the one most long-term visitors settle on and it is worth having alongside whatever else you choose. Install before departure and test it at home on a label in your own kitchen.

Can I download a translation app after I arrive in China?

On an iPhone, probably. The App Store is reachable on a mainland network, so you can still add something you forgot. On an Android phone it is much harder, because the store you would normally use is not reachable. Install before you fly, and on Android treat that as compulsory rather than advisable.

Are menus in China in English?

In hotels, international districts and places built for visitors, often yes. Away from those, frequently not, and the good small restaurants are exactly the ones with a handwritten board on the wall. That is the case the camera is for.

Do I need to learn any Chinese before I go?

No. A phrase or two is a courtesy and it is noticed, but nothing about a trip depends on it. What does help is being willing to point, and to order the thing the next table is eating.