One of the reasons why planning a trip to China might feel overwhelming is because of its mobile apps and websites landscape.
China technology suite is completely diverged from the rest of the world and many of the big tech solutions are either blocked or simply not available in China.
Can you use Google Maps in China?
Google Maps is by far the most popular (and most comprehensive) maps app used in most of the world. In China, it's a different story.
When using a local mobile provider or wifi, you will not have the ability to connect to Google Maps unless you use a VPN.
However, more importantly, even if you are using a VPN, they are completely useless. Google Maps, due to lack of access to up-to-date information, are completely outdated!
Using them will only confuse you , so even when you are able to access them using your roaming data plan, I advise against it.
What are the best Google Maps alternative?
We use a combination of different maps apps to cover all our needs.
Gaode
It is a Chinese app for maps, available both on Android and iPhone. It contains all up-to-date addresses (as detailed as listing floor number of a shopping center), photos, 3D view, and navigation.
It is all in Chinese, so it is important to be able to know the names of locations in Chinese. It is also very helpful if you want to ask a Chinese person on the streets for directions.
Apple Maps
I am normally not a fan of Apple maps, I find them very poor and don't use them back home.
However, in China, you don't have much choice. While the usability remains relatively poor, addresses are mostly up-to-date and available in English. The public transport time tables are also up-to-date and accurate, so you can use it to get around the city.
What3Words
Not only good for China, it is an app worth using as a complementary tool. It uses the what3words convention that divides the whole world into 3m x 3m squares allowing you to share a very precise location anywhere in the world, even for places that don't have names or addresses!
I use it extensively on this blog, and we use it during our travels to mark precisely places we liked like small eateries or parks. I highly recommend it!
MapOut
This app is only available on iPhone, and are our primary maps app for hiking. It is very accurate and you can easily download parts of the map to use them offline, and draw your routes so it is really useful for planning your walking routes in advance.
Conclusion
There is no perfect solution for a map app that you can use in China, however the combination of the three mentioned above will get you very far.
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