Trip.com has been my go-to website and app for booking flights, trains and hotels for years now. They have an easy-to-use interface, great deals and discounts for members and you can gather some inspiration from other travellers who post ratings and reviews on the application itself.

With AirBnB, you can choose to stay in a vacation rental house or apartment in unique locations around the world, rent out your home while travelling or even sign up to enjoy one of the many distinct experiences hosted in cities around the globe.

With more than 36,000 properties in over 178 countries, Hostelworld was one of the first apps I used when booking accommodation during my solo travels around China. Alongside being able to book cheaper accommodation (even with single-room options), it was a great way to connect with global travellers and make new friends while on the road!

Before I discovered Deepl, I was reliant on Google Translate. but now, Deepl is my go-to for accurate Chinese - English (or vice versa) translation! You can either translate texts or full documents with ease using their website or app.

Wherever you travel, it’s always a good idea to learn a few words and phrases (or more if you can!) so that you can really try to integrate yourself into the culture and connect with locals! Duolingo is one of those apps that is easy to use, and easy to learn key phrases that will most defintiely come of use.

Xe Currency has been my go-to currency converter app for years. It provides exchange rates in real-time, and you can select and save a list of your most-used currencies for easier reference.

For all the foodies out there, you need to book a trip with LostPlate while travelling in China. From afternoon tours to multi-day trips, they take you on a culinary adventure like no other to some fascinating dining locations in China that would be hard to come-by if you were to organize it yourself. Head over to www.lostplate.com to book a tour today, and get a discount by using the code “UNCOVERINGCITIES”.

In China, WeChat is king. With this app, you can do everything - text, voice message or call your contacts (voice and video/individual and/or groups); subscribe to magazines or official accounts for the latest news; browse through a social feed of your friends pictures; buy plane tickets, train tickets, movie tickets; rent a shared bike; order groceries or other products from official stores; transfer money to another individual. The possibilities are endless, and you’d be at a loss without this.

Alipay is a popular third-party online payment platform for mobile - and it even overtook PayPal as the world’s largest platform of its kind! With it, not only can you transfer money from one individual to another, but you can pay businesses, top-up your mobile phone, pay your utility bills, rent vehicles for hire, rent shared bicycles, load up your health codes (a post-pandemic requirement for a lot of places in China), and much, much more.

DiDi is China’s answer to Uber. It’s a popular ride-hailing app that you can use throughout the majority of the country, and you have the option to choose the type of car you want to ride in (private car, taxi, ride-sharing), or even rent one of their shared bikes to zip through a city with (if available).

“Ele me?” or “饿了么?” roughly translates to as “Hungry now?”. You guessed it, Eleme is China’s online to offline food delivery app. I honestly don’t even know how I could function without this app anymore and those living in China are very lucky to be able to have access to anything they want within 30 minutes - 1 hour. Craving pizza? You got it. Want some dumplings? Start ordering. Want to spruce up your flat with fresh flowers? It’s there. Need some milk for the morning? Just pop onto the grocery section. Need some nails and a hammer to hang up a picture? Sure thing. You get the picture.

When I first moved to China, Pleco was my lifeline. This app provides you with an English – Chinese dictionary in your pocket. Whether you’re searching for a specific ingredient you don’t know the name of, trying to translate a character you see on the street, or want to use flashcards to brush up on your Chinese language skills, this tool will help.

Forget Google Maps, Baidu Maps is the most widely used app in China. It relies on artificial intelligence and a powerful database to provide you with super-accurate directions and real-time traffic information. I find this even more useful than Apple Maps too, because when your preferred mode of transport, it’s easy to see which routes you can, and cannot, take.

In the same vein as Ele.me, but with some added elements, Meituan is another one-stop platform for all your food, grocery, bike-sharing, ride-hailing, shopping needs. The benefit of having both apps is that you’ll have a much broader range of shops and restaurants to choose from, as not all will be on both platforms.

Once again, China spoils us with an app that will give you just about anything you want. Taobao is an online shopping platform that facilitates consumer-to-consumer retail and is host to a number of small businesses and entrepreneurs you can buy products from - but larger companies also have official stores on the app if you prefer to go straight to the main provider. When buying larger, or more expensive items, be sure to check the reviews and business ratings though!

If you have some Chinese language skills under your belt, Dianping is a great tool for uncovering some great places to eat in any Chinese city you visit. It’s like Yelp, but has far more features integrated into its system: business information, group purchases, digital membership cards, reviews from customers and restaurant booking functionalities!

If you haven’t quite grasped Chinese yet, then Bon App will be your best friend when it comes to looking up business information for restaurants in different cities, while limited to only a few cities in China compared to Dianping, it’s a useful one to know and browse when you are in Shanghai.

If you can’t seem to access Spotify while visiting or living in China (I’ve always had trouble with it) then give QQ Music a go. Just like Spotify, you can stream music and videos, but to access more content you will need a paid subscription too - though this is fairly cheap. Connect it to your WeChat account to log in, and start singing along to your favourite tunes.

TMall is like Taobao, but for business to consumer operations. On this platform, you’ll find a number of both local Chinese and international brands selling products from their official online stores. I tend to use this app when looking to purchase higher-end items, electronics or items at higher price points, as it feels better purchasing from an official store directly.

If you’re only going to be visiting or living in Shanghai or Beijing, you can probably get away with just downloading the apps for those specific Metro systems. But if you plan on travelling around the country quite extensively, then MetroMan will definitely come in handy. At the time of writing, they have maps for 45 of China’s metro systems - ranging from Urumqi and Hohhot to Hong Kong, Guiyang, Wuhan and many more - alongside fare prices and journey times when inputting your journey from A to B. You can download them and keep them for offline reference too!

Looking to pick up some Mandarin Chinese without having to commit to offline lessons? This app provides a number of interactive “lessons” for free that you can work your way through in your own time. From reading and writing to speaking and listening, there’s enough here to get all the words and phrases you’ll need to get by.