Every China packing list tells you to download new apps, and never quite says which of the old ones will quit on you. The honest answer is that two of the most useful apps in travel — Google Maps and Google Translate — are the two most likely to be dead weight in your dock the minute you clear passport control, and for two completely different reasons.
Here's what actually works in the mainland, what to install before you fly, and why the maps question has a connectivity answer and a map-quality answer that are worth keeping separate.
The short answer on Google Maps
Google's services are not reachable from a Chinese local connection — a local SIM, home broadband, hotel Wi-Fi. Open Google Maps on one and you get grey tiles, a spinning search box, and no route.
There is a second problem underneath that one, and it survives even when the app loads. Chinese law requires licensed map providers to publish in a coordinate system called GCJ-02, which is deliberately offset from the raw GPS coordinates (WGS-84) your phone reads — by roughly 100 to 700 metres, depending on where you are. That mismatch is why a blue dot sometimes sits in a river one block over, and why Google's satellite imagery and road layer can look misaligned in China. Google's mainland street-level detail is also thinner than what Chinese apps carry.
So: even with a working connection, Google Maps is the second-best map in China. Use it for orientation and for pasting an address to a driver; use something local to actually get somewhere.
Amap is the map you actually want
Amap (高德地图, Gaode), owned by Alibaba, launched an English version in January 2025 — the first Chinese map app to do so for international visitors — and added 14 more languages that July, including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Russian and Arabic. Attractions, restaurants and hotels carry English names, and the serious features came with it: real-time traffic, lane-level navigation, traffic-light countdowns, metro and bus routing, and ride-hailing with fare estimates in English.
Download it from the App Store or Google Play before you fly. Reports conflict on registration: route search and navigation are widely described as working without an account, while ride-hailing generally wants a verified phone number, with Apple ID or Alipay sign-in offered as a way around needing a Chinese SIM. Open it at home and find out which applies to you.
Baidu Maps and Apple Maps
Baidu Maps has superb mainland data and an interface that is, in practice, Chinese-only. Worth having if you read characters; frustrating if you don't.
Apple Maps works in the mainland, and its Chinese map data has long been supplied by AutoNavi — the company behind Amap. On an iPhone it is the easiest decent map to reach, in English, with nothing to install.
Translation: Google left in 2022
This one isn't filtering. Google discontinued Google Translate in mainland China in October 2022, citing low usage; the Chinese site was replaced by a bare search box pointing at the Hong Kong version, which isn't reachable from the mainland either. Treat the app as something that needs a connection from outside the country.
What to pack instead:
| App | Good for | Catch |
|---|---|---|
| Pleco | Chinese dictionary, handwriting and camera lookup | Fully offline; the paid add-ons do the heavy lifting |
| Apple Translate | On-device text and voice on iPhone | Download Chinese for offline use first |
| Baidu Translate / Youdao | Strong Chinese↔English, voice and camera | Chinese-leaning interfaces; set up at home |
| Google Translate offline pack | Typed text and camera translation | Download at home; live conversation still wants a server |
| Translating messages people send you | Only inside WeChat |
Microsoft Translator is reported to work intermittently from the mainland, which is another way of saying don't rely on it. More on which "offline" modes are genuinely offline: the translation app you think is offline.
Why your usual apps keep working on mobile data
The filtering applies to traffic that enters the internet as a Chinese local connection. A VamosData China eSIM connects as ordinary international roaming: your phone uses the local radio network, but your data exits through a gateway outside the mainland. It was never a local connection, so Google Maps, Google Translate and your group chat keep behaving the way they do at home — nothing to install or troubleshoot at the taxi rank.
That isn't a workaround; it's the same mechanism a business traveller on their home operator has always used. Routing is set by each plan's network partner, so if one specific app is mission-critical, check the plan details before you depend on it.
The honest limits
The moment you join hotel or café Wi-Fi, you're on a local connection again and behind the filter, whichever SIM is in your phone. And none of this is legal advice — it's a description of how roaming works.
Before you fly: install Amap and one translation app, download your offline language pack, confirm your handset supports eSIM with the device checker, and get your VamosData eSIM installed while you still have a connection you trust. Then see all our destinations, or read everything to set up before you fly to China and how the filtering works.