Now Shenzhen | August 23, 2021
Here is an essential survival kit of smart phone apps you would need to help you navigate the city that’ll put the locals to shame. Some of the apps are only in Chinese but are comprehensible. On the itunes store website, most of the Chinese apps will say that they have both English and Chinese, but the English version is basically non-existent. It’s a long list including categories ranging from social network to banking, choose wisely and enjoy being a pro at living in Shenzhen!
Social Network
WeChat
WeChat provides multimedia communication with text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact information exchange. WeChat supports social networking via shared streaming content feeds where you can share photos, texts and photos, and location-based social plug-ins (“Shake”, “Look Around”, and “Drift Bottle”) to chat with and connect with local and international WeChat users. Wechat is one of the most widely used social network app in China, it is free, and you can also sign up for WeChat using your phone number or QQ ID and password. (QQ is another social network App developed by Tencent) In Hong Kong, What’s app is more popular than WeChat.
Download: iOS| Android
Skype
This free app allows users to communicate with peers by voice using microphone, video by using webcam, and over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls are charged via adebit-based user account system. Skype has also has additional features, including file transfer, and video conferencing. With Skype you can contact your friends from all over the world in many different languages. Skype partners with GMF to provide access to Skype for Chinese customers, using a modified version that follows Chinese regulations.
Download: iOS | Android Market
Instagram
Instagram is fast and fun way to share your life with friends and family. Take a picture or video, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. You can also share to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. It’s a free app.
Download: iOS | Android Market
QQ
With one billion registered users in 80 countries, QQ is one of the most popular communication apps in China. Most people use WeChat on their phones and QQ on the web. It is free and it supports video calls, voice chats, and rich texting. With the built-in translator you can translate chats. You can also share photos and videos with friends.
Download: iOS | Android Market
Weibo
Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. It’s a free app and it is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of Internet users, with a market penetration similar to the United States’ Twitter. Sina Weibo implements many features from Twitter. Users may post with a 140-characters limit, mention or talk to other people using “@UserName” format, add hashtags with “#HashName#” format, follow other people to make his/her posts appear in users’ own timeline, re-post with “//@UserName” similar to Twitter’s retweet function “RT @UserName”, put a post into the favourite list, verify the account if the user is a celebrity. It comes in both English and simplified Chinese, although most posts are in Chinese.
Download: iOS | Android Market
Language learning/Dictionary
Nciku
Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary with Chinese handwriting recognition, pinyin translation, audio pronunciation, personalized vocab lists, and conversation banks. You can also enhance your language skills with the memorization test feature. The Nciku Hi! feature allows you to make friends with other users and potentially native Chinese speakers.
Download: iOS | Android
Google Translate
With more 80 languages, Google Translate allows you to: Listen to your translations spoken aloud; Directly translate speech and handwriting; Star your favorite translations for quick access even when you’re offline; View dictionary results for single words or phrases. Of course the app is free!
Download: iOS | Android
Pleco
“Pleco is probably the best tool you can get to work on your chinese. Download the Flashcard Add-on to create your own vocabulary list and test yourself. They also have a paying optical-reader add-on where you can use your phone camera and scan on-the-go chinese text and get instant translation. It’s perhaps a bit geeky as you need to learn a bit how to set it up to your needs but you can do pretty much everything with this app.”–Yann, Pleco user
Software offers world-class Chinese dictionary, flashcard, and document reader software for smartphones and tablets. Pleco supports OCR, which means that you can take a photo of a chinese word and the system will recognize the image and look it up for you. That way you can learn Chinese on the go. Pleco also supports handwriting, audio, and document reading. Moreover, the app is Mainland/Hong Kong/Taiwan friendly, meaning it supports both simplified and traditional chinese; it also recognizes cantonese. The app is free but in-App features such as full-screen handwriting and flashcards system charge extra.
Download: iOS | Androind
Mental Case
Mental Case is basically a digital flashcard set that helps you learn and keep track of simple tasks. It’s designed for iPhone and iPads. You can enter what you want to study on the flashcard in the forms of texts, audio, even a short video. It can be very helpful when it comes to learning a language because you can learn the words as well as their pronunciations. The app supports two-way translation, in the case of learning Chinese, it means that you can use English as a prompt to study Chinese words, or Chinese as a prompt to see if you remember the English translation. You can use your mental case sets between devices by syncing them to iCloud. Mental Case also has free access to Flashcardexchange.com and Quizlet.com, where you can download whole sets of flashcard. The App charges $4.99 on iTunes Store.
iOS download
Transportation
Didi Dache
With this app you can call a taxi in more than 300 major cities in China. Just type in or record your location, and the taxi drivers close to you will come and pick you up. You can choose to pay a fee of 5rmb, 10rmb or 20rmb so that you get a better chance of getting a cab. Sometimes you might have trouble getting a cab if you don’t pay that fee. Because taxi drivers get paid an extra fee, it’s generally easier for you to get cab if you use this app. If you pay through wechat payment, you’ll get a 3rmb return every time you take a taxi. This app also allows you to reserve rides in another city. The app only has Chinese version, but it’s not hard for non-Chinese speakers to learn how to use it.
Download: iOS | Android
Uber
Uber offers on-demand private ride services you can order on your smartphone. Type in your name and a private car will come pick you up and take you to your destination, a fee will be charged to your credit card account. It’s a more luxurious and privatized experience compared to other types of transportation. Uber was launched in Shenzhen earlier this year and recently in Hong Kong.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Explore Metro
This is a metro map that’s straightforward and accessible offline. It also shows street maps near every exit. You can use the route planning features to find the most efficient route of your trip. The app is free and it’s in English.
Download: iOS | Android
Travel
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is a site where users all over the world review on their travel-related experiences including flights, hotels and attractions. In Shenzhen TripAdvisor is good for getting detailed information about top hotels and few of the major attractions like Window of the World. But when it comes to minor attractions and resorts there are few comments in English. For new attractions and hotels the reviews are updated relatively slower. You can still get basic information from the introduction section though. TripAdvisor is helpful for people living in Shenzhen who are planning visits to southeast Asian countries. Download: iOS | Android
Agoda
Agoda is Asia’s global hotel booking app with access to more than 357,000 hotels worldwide. You can get comprehensive information about hotels in Shenzhen including customer reviews, and filter through hotels by hotel types and your estimated check-in dates. People in Shenzhen also use this app to book hotels in other Asian countries especially those in Southeast Asia.
Download: iOS | Android
Asia Miles App
If you become a member of Asia Miles, you can earn “miles”–flight related credits every step of the way of your trip. Asia Miles is partner with 25 airline companies, 300 restaurant and numerous other industries covering many different categories including transportation, retails and finance. Simply open the app and locate Asia Miles’ partners near you, if you fly with airlines, dine at restaurants and shop at stores that partner with Asia Miles, credits will be added to your account and once you have enough miles you can exchange your accumulated miles with gifts like an mp3 player, or a round-trip flight from Hong Kong to Vegas, depending on the amount of miles you earned. With Asia Miles you can also find out about special offers of partner businesses. Some of Asia Miles’ partners that apply to Shenzhen are: Cathay Pacific Airlines, Intercontinental hotel, Hilton hotel, HSBC Bank, China Merchant Bank, Langham Hotel, 360° Bar, Restaurant & Lounge and Café Zen.
Download: iOS | Android
Flight Status
This is a worldwide flight tracking app which covers 4300+ Airports and 1200+ Airlines including Hong Kong international Airport. You can track flights with your flight number, the airport or the route. The app provides comprehensive information every step of your journey: the estimated departure/landing time, airport information (car rentals, hotels nearby, and restaurants and coffee shops inside airports), and notifications about delays and cancellations. You can even check the schedule a year ahead with the flight numbers. This app costs 4.99USD and it’s for iPhones and iPads only.
Downloads: iOS
HK ImmD
Reflects the status of border crossing from Hong Kong Immigration Department. This app is developed by a freelancer. The information comes from the HK Immigration Department’s website and it will be updated about every 15 minutes, reflecting the status at the time of updating and is for reference only.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Map
Baidu Map
Baidu Map is the free all-in-one map app you can’t live without in China. It has all the basic functions of any map app: locating your place, showing you the destination with your distance to it and the route with three transportation options, walking, public transportation and driving. The advantages it has over Google map is that it workers faster and more accurate in China. Although it only comes in simplified Chinese, pinyin generally works fine with this app for those of you who don’t know Chinese. The new version records the location of your home and work, and tells you how busy the traffic is around the area of these locations. Check the bus schedules in your area, find out the traffic situation along each route, and pick the most efficient route for yourself. One of the best features of Baidu Map is the turn-by-turn directions for walking and driving. As you walk or drive the map simultaneously updates the traffic around your area. Baidu Map also have databases for popular tourist attractions in China in which you can check out the ticket prices, routes, and recommended specialties in these attractions. You can find information about hotels, restaurants and even check the weather on this app.
Download: iOS | Android
Google Map
Google Map is good for those of you whose knowledge in Chinese is close to none. The app is pretty helpful in Hong Kong and better than the Apple Map. All the place names and street names are in English and although it’s not as up-to-date as Baidu Map, it’s pretty straight-forward and it’s free.
Download: iOS | Android
Financial Management
Currency
This app provides the most up-to-date currency exchange rates for over 180 countries. Simply select the currency type you have and type in the amount you want to exchange and you’ll get the result of the equivalent amount in another currency. It costs $0.99.
Download: iOS | Android
HSBC China Apple App
HSBC is a helpful free app for banking on-the-go. Available for iPhone and iPads, it allows you to make deposits, view recent transactions and check your account balances. To use the app, you have to register to be a Personal Internet Banking customer on the HSBC website. HSBC China Apple App features currency exchange information, you can check the most up-dated RMB against other currencies exchange rate, as well as Chinese deposit rates. With the iPhone app you can locate the closest ATM machines to you, including their operating hours and services availability. For people who have multiple international accounts, it’s simple to switch between them with this app.
Download: iOS
Paypal
Paypal is the online payment processor that helps transfer money from buyers to vendors. Set up Paypal using your credit card information, and you can buy things online and make payments through Paypal. When you make a deal with a vendor, you pay with Paypal but the money doesn’t go directly to the vendor until you’ve confirmed online that you’ve received and accepted the quality of the product. Paypal provides a more trustworthy platform for online payment not only for online shopping, but also for places like restaurants and hotels. Using Paypal in China is not as convenient, although you can still make international transactions even in RMB, the major online shopping site Taobao doesn’t accept Paypal payment.
Download: iOS | Android
Alipay Wallet
Alipay is the Chinese equivalent to Paypal. The transaction process of Alipay is the same as Paypal: the vendors don’t get the payment until customers received their goods and shoppers can pay with just one click. Most users use it when online shopping online on sites like Taobao, Tmall or Dangdang. With the phone app they can track their orders and purchase history. Chinese online shopping sites usually don’t support Paypal so setting up Alipay will really make online shopping in China a breeze. Users can use Alipay Wallet to pay for all kids of services such as water bills, phone minutes, credit card bills and even plane tickets. Alipay doesn’t have an English version yet, but you can easily learn how to set up an Alipay account.
Download: iOS | Android
Business
Social Agent
This app is a match-maker between businesses and sales agents. Businesses can post their sales jobs and introduce their products to a network of sales agents with profiles regarding their previous work performances, and agents can send leads and view offers of businesses from around the world. The app provides a reliable payment system which releases payment to sales agents when businesses receive sales leads. The app is free to download but will charge depending on which plan you choose to use, the charges of the plans are as follows: startups: $10 per lead; businesses: $30 per lead; enterprises: $100 per lead.
Download: iOS | Android
Weather
HK Weather
Provides weather forecast of 7 days in Hong Kong, Guangdong cities, and major cities in the world. Informations include typhoon map, Air Quality Health Index (replacing the Air Pollution Index), regional weather of HK, weather for major cities of Guangdong, China and the world.
Download: iOS | Android
Shenzhen Weather
The app for Shenzhen weather forecast. This app is only in Chinese but you shouldn’t have any trouble understanding the information. It provides weather forecast for 5-7 days, extreme weather alerts, typhoon maps and air quality indexes. It’s a free app.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Airpocalypse
Do yourself a favor and download this app to survive the questionable air quality in China. The app shows you the color-coded Air Index Quality as well as daily advices on whether it’s reasonable to go out under the current weather condition. You not only get the weather forecast for three days, but also the “feels like” temperature. You can also change between Fahrenheit and Celsius. The app is only for iPhone and iPads and it’s free.
Downloads: iOS
Time and Calendar Management
Fantastical
A multi-functional reminder and calendar app designed for iPhone that has time alert and geo-fence features, reminding you the time and location of your input event. The app recognises natural languages–as you input your event, for example, “Julia’s Birthday Party at Westin Hotel on Sunday 7:30 pm”, the app will automatically set “Westin Hotel” as the location and 7:30 as the time. It also recognises days of the week, holidays and repeating events. The app also supports app control. If you invited more people to an event, you can email, call or message the invitees with one tap. Fantastical will also remind you of your friends’ birthdays, and you can choose which social network to send them a birthday wish with. The app costs $5.99.
Download: iOS
TimeScroller
An iPhone app that saves you the hassle of having to deal with time differences when you’re trying to schedule an international conference. Initially the app displays your current city and shows you whether the current time is a good time to hold a conference or not, as you add more international locations, the app will suggest a time that’s best for all the locations chosen. Once the time is chosen, you can tap save and the app will remind you when your scheduled time comes. The app costs $1.99.
Download: iOS
Entertainment
Mtime
Check what’s in theatre, buy movie tickets and choose seats with this app. Although it’s only in Chinese, it’s pretty straight-forward and convenient. You can pay with Alipay or your online banking account. Based on your location, the app will suggest the theatre with the best deal. The app also has a database of movie top lists, movie information and actor profiles. You can read movie reviews from other users to decide whether you want to watch a movie or not.
Download: iOS | Android
Douban FM
Douban FM is your second music resort since Spotify and Pandora are not accessible in China. It’s known for recommending the music based on the user’s listening behaviours–the radios they choose to listen to, the songs they “liked” and the songs they skipped. If you hit “heart” on a song, the app saves that to your “hearted” Herz and you can listen to them offline. Douban is known for its originality and intellectual hipster vibe, so not only are their categorical radios differentiated based on regions and genres, you will also find radios named “Green Tea with a touch of bitter” and “Easy”. Douban is extremely original music-friendly, expect to hear a lot of fresh new music, in case you’re wondering whether you will be listening to the same pop song you’ve already listened to on the radio for nine million times.
Download: iOS | Android
Youku
The Chinese equivalent of Youku, except perhaps better. You can find whole seasons of shows for free here. You will be able to find cooking and fitness tutorial in English too. Sometimes you have pay to watch certain movies or shows, and you cannot skip apps before videos unless you pay for a membership. In general, Youku should be your go-to video website if you can’t access Youtube in China. The iPad app has an HD version. Besides Youku, Tudou is another massive video website popular in China.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Downloads for Tudou: iOS | Android
Dianping
The Chinese equivalent to Yelp!, Dianping is like a hodgepodge of entertainment information provided by your fellow restaurant diners, hotel customers and retail store customers. You can find anything from rankings of local restaurants based on customer reviews, to qualities of nearby karaoke boxes. This app is not just a review dictionary, because you can also find all kinds of deals and coupons on this site for restaurants and hotels. Dianping also offers groupon for you and your fellow diners/customers everyday. The app is only in Chinese but you can still use it by narrowing the distance and the cuisine type you like. The app is free.
Download: iOS | Android
Shopping
Taobao
Taobao is essentially the Chinese Ebay. The perks of online shopping especially in China is the extremely low price. It has all the features that your typical online shopping sites would have, scrolling through items, saving items in shopping carts, making transactions with Alipay (Chinese version of Paypal), tracking and returning items. If you have immediate questions about the products, you can talk to the vendors online. The mobile app doesn’t have English version, but it should be easy to navigate. Sometimes the app can be a little slow. It’s a free app.
Download: iOS | Android
Yihaodian
The online grocery shopping app that enables you to buy groceries without leaving the house. The app displays virtual stores with items on the shelves and users can locate the stores closest to them, shop for items, make payments and arrange delivery methods. One problem with the app is that it asks to access a lot of information on your phone. The app also doesn’t have an English version but it should be easy to navigate.
Download: iOS | Android
Jingdong
This online shopping site was initially popular for selling electronic devices. Now it sells groceries too. It also recently launched ebook. The site is known for its fast delivery. The mobile app is not as convenient as the website.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Amazon China
Amazon China is about as effective as other shopping sites in China. The delivery is fast too. You can scan the barcodes of items to check their price and availability.
Downloads: iOS
Information
SCMP
South China Morning Post is a Hong Kong based English newspaper. The mobile version is designed for iPhones and iPads and has features of breaking news alert notification, filter by most read articles and photo/article sharing on social media. The news focuses on Hong Kong, China and Asia so you can always be updated about what’s going on near you. The mobile version requires subscriptions of choices of one month or one year. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Store credit card.
Download: iOS
Douban Tong Cheng
The mobile app tells you about all the theatrical plays, movie showings, concerts and exhibitions that’s going on in your city. If you’re an artistic soul like myself, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this app, even if it’s only in Chinese. Once you see an event that you’re interested in, you can click “interested” and the app will remind you when the event date gets near. With this app you can also manage your tickets to this event, the app supports Passbook too.
Download: iOS | Android
CNN
CNN keeps you connect with global news wherever you are. With breaking news alert and video streaming features, you’ll sure be on top of what’s going on around the globe. You can contribute your stories using CNN iReport by uploading videos, photos or articles. The app is free.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Service:
Boyanpiao
Boyanpiao is a ticket service website under Shenzhen Concert Hall. You can buy tickets to concerts, exhibitions, sports events, etc. When you buy tickets, this app allows you to choose your seats. Ticket delivery to urban Shenzhen area (including Baoan District and Longgang District) is free.
Downloads: iOS
Twilit
Twilit is an on call housekeeper service app with which you can order service with just one tap. The system will choose a housekeeper for you according to your location/preferences. The housekeeper will arrive at your home in the shortest time possible. You can pay for your service with credit card or Alipay.
Downloads: iOS | Android
Huasheng App
Shenzhen metro lines Shekou and Luobao have now opened free wifi accessibility. When you get on the metro and connect to “MyWifi” and then open a browser, there will be instructions to download the Huasheng App. This is the App that you will need to obtain the verification code in order to use the Wifi. After you download the App, you will have to play the game “Qianghuasheng”, or follow Huasheng App’s weibo, or download “huashengsuopin” exclusive for Android users, in order to obtain the verification code for “MyWifi”.
Official Shenzhen Subway/Metro App
The official app for the Shenzhen Subway/Metro is here! Released in August 2014, this is sure to be your urban transport pocket rocket. Easy to use and in both English and simplified Chinese, you will be able to see all the detailed metro lines and also a live, up-to-date timetable of arrival and departure. You will also be able to save frequent metro routes and plan ahead of time to make travelling easy and timely!
Official Shenzhen Airport App (深圳机场） － for Apple iPhone, iPads & Macs.
The official app for the Shenzhen has been release and is now available in English, adding to your domestic & international travel needs. Easy to use and in both English and simplified Chinese, you will be able to see all the flights; live & up-to-date departure & arrival timetable.
Others:
Hong Kong Junk Calls – Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch(iOS 7.0 or later)
You have an unknown number calling you and you wonder whether or not to call back? This app aim to help identify cold calls, manage contacts with the functions below:
Check whether a contact is a reported junk call number which was reported by other users
Understand the nature of a cold call in the contact’s description
Report a junk call number and provide more information of what is it
Import the contact list into address book so as to have information when junk call comes
Add contact group, manage and categorise contacts ( currently, you can only add contact group on iCloud website, but not on iphone)
