1.Social Communication: WeChat (微信)
Wechat is China’s dominant social media app and is completely irreplaceable. This is where you will interact with your companions, speak with your supervisor, make business arrangements, learn about new events and much more.
WeChat also makes shopping effortless; its wallet function is so widespread that China could become completely cashless in the near future. You can even use it to pay your transport fares and expenses whilst travelling abroad.
Unfortunately, Wechat does have its downsides. Its great functionalities are not easily adapted to other English-speaking countries and it isn’t the most secure of apps. However, Wechat does have other highlights including a heap of membership benefits to keep you refreshed on upcoming events and current affairs.
Available in English
2. Food Delivery services : Ele.me (饿了么)
In China, food delivery is a way of life and is remarkably convenient. It is done through mobile apps where clients can choose from a multitude of options from the comfort of their sofas. Ele.me offer supermarket, coffee, food or drinks delivery— leaving your home for food is no longer a priority!
3. Online Taxi / Car : DiDi (滴滴出行)
Catching a taxi can be difficult in China, especially during peak times or at night. But don’t worry, DiDi has your back. The taxi app that swallowed up Uber China offers regular taxis, a private car service called Premier, and an Express option for carpooling.
Available in English
4. Bike renting : ofo (小黄车) / Mobike (摩拜单车)
The traffic jams in major Chinese cities make getting stuck in a taxi an extremely frustrating experience. Bike rental apps Mobike and ofo are the biggest players on the market and are available almost everywhere. There are, however, many other options such as Bluegogo and the dazzling golden bikes equipped with phone charging.
Ofo’s partnership with DiDi means that users can also search for bikes using DiDi’s app. The company also offers payment through WeChat’s wallet.
Available in English
5. Online Payment: Alipay (支付宝)
Most of the great apps mentioned above require you to set up an Alipay wallet. The difference between Alipay and its arch-nemesis WeChat Pay is that the former is a standalone app. Among other features, Alipay offers bill payments, hospital registration, and even international money transfers. Unfortunately, the last option is available only to Chinese nationals or foreigners with a Chinese green card.
Alipay is integrated with major apps such as Taobao, Airbnb, Didi and right now, it is testing its own mini-apps.
Available in English
6. Online Shopping: Taobao (淘宝)
Regarded as the Amazon of China, the mighty Taobao offers everything from fully functional airplanes to temporary boyfriends. One excellent feature of Taobao is its image search; you can take a photo of the product you want, upload it on the app and laugh under your breath at the market seller who wanted to sell you the same item for double or even triple the price.
While Taobao mostly connects resellers and customers, its sister site Tmall hosts brand’s official online stores, making it a better solution for purchasing authentic products.
7. Travel : Ctrip / Qunar (去哪儿)
There is a huge number of beautiful places to visit whilst in China; your bucket list will be too big to do in one trip. To help you find the best prices for travel tickets in both China and abroad, check out Ctrip and Qunar. In terms of functionality, these two apps are practically identical. This can be explained by the fact that these two companies are actually partners. Both of them work with Airbnb’s biggest rival in China, Tujia.
Thanks to its flight tracking feature Fliggy (飞猪), these apps are well suited for frequent travelers who will be all too familiar with China’s infamous plane delays.
Available in English
8. Restaurants/food guide: BonApp!
Food poisoning is very common for expats in China. BonApp! is one of the largest restaurant review apps in China and comes in handy to prevent getting sick. The app offers an English version that has user-generated reviews of restaurants, beauty salons, gyms, VR arcades, and much more. Many businesses offer online reservations, coupons and discount vouchers- some of which become viral through the app.
Available in English
9. Finding an Apartment: ReloChina by JRE
Apartment hunting in China’s crowded cities can be a traumatic experience. Major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen require extra research and persistence to find the right apartment. ReloChina is China’s best relocation app; it has all the information you could need to find the right apartment. It shows you a detailed description of apartments/villas which can be filtered by area, bedrooms, facilities and many other categories. It offers great information about nearby hospitals, schools, airports and much more.
A great addition is the blog, which contains articles written in-house about a variety of topics including family, culture, business and visas. It ensures that the transition of moving to China is as easy as possible.
10. Music Apps: Xiaomi (虾米)
Chinese music applications are great; streaming is free and the paid subscriptions are inexpensive. Xiaomi has a great combination of artists from both China and western countries. As of late, the application has diversified its content by promoting unusual and developing artists.
Xiami is an application that is widely available and is unusual because it is mostly converted into English. However, there are many other awesome Chinese music applications to check out.
Available in English
11. Dating: Tantan (探探)
The Chinese version of Tinder, Tantan, is the biggest dating app in China. It works through a location-based mechanism which matches you with people that are in or have been to the same places as you. The app pushes the match based on users’ common tags- mostly similar hobbies and interests.
Available in English
12. Translation : Pleco / Baidu Translate (百度翻译)
Last but not least, Baidu/Pleco are some of the most important applications for an expat in China. It is a dictionary translation app and is critical to navigating through the non-English speaking parts of China. Pleco is a standout amongst the Chinese-English translation apps; it has a free feature ‘Screen Reader’ which translates written Chinese characters into other languages. Pleco also offers valuable additional items, for example the Optical Character Reader which gives you a chance to filter Chinese writings.
Ever wonder what those sketchy SMS messages from anonymous numbers are saying? Baidu Translate can uncover the mystery.
To read more: Joanna Real Estate
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