If you’ve gotten your paws on an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’ve likely added lots of useful apps to it. You might, however, have overlooked the fact that there are lots of apps – many by Chinese developers – that you can use daily to help find your way around, speak the language, or get information.
I’ve chosen 10 China-relevant apps, most of which are free. Some of the free apps might be not quite so good as some pricey alternatives – eg: I’ve opted for the free DianHua dictionary over the $5 QingWen one. If you have any other app recommendations, share them in the comments.
In no particular order, here are my sweet 10 China apps (all prices are in USD, as they appear in Apple’s official China App Store. All the apps should be available worldwide):
Explore Shanghai/Beijing/Guangzhou/Hong Kong
99 cents each
App Store Link (for Shanghai version)…
These four separate apps (by the same Explore Metro company) are interactive subway maps (pictured, right) which work offline. They not only give you up-to-date maps, but also allow you to plan routes, and get train times and travel costs. Best of all, the app uses the devices ‘location services’ to tell you which subway stop is nearest to where you’re standing.
Aibang Trains (爱帮列车)
free
App Store Link…
This free app seems to be the best way I can find of searching national train times, and allows you to search by train number, or by departing and arrival stations. Very useful for checking that you can get where you need to go on the new ‘D trains’ (aka: bullet trains) as quickly as possible. The only downside to this app is that it requires you to be online, with either wi-fi or 3G.
Shanghai Guide
free
App Store Link…
There are lots more Shanghai-related apps, but this is the best free one, giving you a decent spread of events, shopping places, hotels, current concerts, restaurants and more, and allows you to search places according to name, price-levels, or recommendations. Plus, it all works offline. The main downside is that there’s not much info provided; for example: if I search for high-end malls, and click on Plaza 66, the app doesn’t tell me what shops there are actually inside.
City Fu
free
App Store Link…
This app covers Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Like the Shanghai Guide app, above, it has a good selection of places, which you can find by searching, or by browsing through the categories, and it all works offline. I really wish it’d allow for browsing of certain types of places within a vicinity; for example, it’d be useful to be able to browse only electronics stores in Xujiahui. Oh well; it’s still a good app.
DianHua dictionary
free
App Store Link…
I rate this as the best free bilingual CN-Eng dictionary. In addition to doing what you’d expect, it’ll also save (or ‘bookmark’) some of your most-needed words or phrases, and allow you to compile flashcards for studying purposes.
QQ
free
App Store Link…
If you have a QQ number, then this official app from Tencent is the best way to use it online (since the awesome multi-IM apps, like Meebo and Nimbuzz, don’t support QQ).
Douban.fm
free
App Store Link…
Since you’re on the other side of the planet, you’re barred from the Spotify and Pandora parties (curse geolocation filtering!), how about checking out Douban, the Chinese social-network based around what movies you’re watching and books you’re reading. So, once you have an account over at Douban.com, you can use this free app to stream music over wi-fi or 3G.
The Forbidden Palace
$4.99 with audio, or $2.99 without audio
App Store Link…
This is a unique, multimedia tour-guide (pictured, above) and interactive map for Beijing’s historic Forbidden Palace complex. I recently talked to the developer of the app, and he explained that his inspiration was the awfulness of the standard, clunky audio tours in museums such as the Louvre. Instead, he wanted to create something more hi-tech for a more convenient device: and this neat Palace Museum iPhone app was born. In addition to historical info – in either audio or text form – the app features a map that can plan a route for you, based on what you’d like to see most, or how much time you have available.
Autonavi Navigation (高德导航)
$14.99
App Store Link…
If you drive in China, you might like to know that this is China’s best-selling in-car GPS with maps iPhone app. It’s a lot cheaper than the $50-plus of European and American GPS apps, and is tailor-made to China’s roads. It’s only available in Chinese, but that shouldn’t be a problem to those (few brave laowais) who actually drive here.
Tangram Puzzle Pro
99 cents
App Store Link…
This classical 7-piece Chinese puzzle (pictured, right) – known as 七巧板 in Chinese – is a sort of shape-shifting jigsaw with a dose of zen. There are lots of different tangram-style apps, but I’d say this one is the best-looking, with some sweet animations and a nice interface. Once you’ve got this you can impress your Chinese workmates as you show that your mind is not a Descartian duality, but as lithe as a Daoist’s. There is a free ‘Lite’ version, if you’d like to try before you buy.
Software for Learning Chinese (学汉语软件) « 包老师博客
Steven has recently embraced the cathartic nature of blogging and twittering in place of talking to himself on public transport, religion, and daydreaming. Who said technology was unhealthy?
Thanks for the article, though I was hoping to see some good stuff I hadn’t yet found. Unfortunately most of the useful things you mentioned are no good unless one lives in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or HK.
I will, however, offer up two of my favorites.
Pleco Dictionary – Free (add-ons available) – http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=341922306&mt=8
I used Dianhua dictionary until Pleco came along and I saw how awesome it was. The basic setup is just a better looking and more useful dictionary in general. Once you add on the standard package ($50 or $35 with educational discount) the program becomes much more useful. I know you’re scoffing at the price, I did too, at first. But the built-in document reader is a life saver. Ever get messages from your Chinese friends in hanzi? Copy it, and view it in the Pleco reader, voila, you can understand what they’re talking about. It’s that slick. Not to mention the better dictionaries (better than CC-EDICT), and much better handwriting recognition. Flashcards are scheduled for the next update within a month or so. If you’re serious about learning Chinese, this is what you need.
China Mahjong – $0.99 – http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=294213011&mt=8
The 4 person game you see people playing in the park, or you play with your friends in a tea house, or maybe even at home with your family. This is not the “solitaire” version where you match tiles. This is the real deal, 4 person mahjong. You can play on the bus and practice up that way your friends don’t take you for all your worth on your next game night.
I second the recommendation for Pleco Dictionary – I’ve been using it since it was an app available on Palm’s PDAs, and the subsequent transition to iPhone has been great.
Thanks to Shane and Dan for the Pleco recommendation – personally, I need to make good old-fashioned paper-and-pencil notes and flashcards when learning (in conjunction with textbooks, plus ChinesePod), so I’d skipped over learning tools such as Pleco in recent years.
I started using EZ-HAN because it is a VERY COMPREHENSIVE Mandarin dictionary for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It’s more than just a bi-directional dictionary. It does Mandarin text translation analysis for students of all levels, business professionals and travelers. You can paste in emails, webpages, etc. for translation. Additionally, it instantly translates between Simplified and Traditional scripts (i.e. Mandarin and Cantonese). It has more than 105,000 Mandarin words and phrases with more than 500,000 English words and phrases. Users can search by characters, Pinyin, homonyms, rhymes, etc. There is even a full tutorial at http://www.at-tariq.com. Go to the Products link and click on EZ-HAN. I speak ten languages, am a serious student of Mandarin and have been using it for months. The newest version is a vast improvement over the previous and very useful – especially since I read BBC Chinese on the train to and from work. I also get assignments over email. The next version (1.4), due out in about 1 week, pronounces all words and phrases. The price is only $4.99.
Nice post, too bad there’s no app that covers Shenyang. For Chinese practice/learning the Byki company has a pretty decent Mandarin application. At $7.99, the price is a bit high, but you can download/add-on tons of flashcard sets for various situations and common phrases.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/transparent-language-inc/id293154354
One iPhone/iPod Touch app I can’t live without in China is Evernote. Since it syncs online, my desktop, and my iPod I use it for tons of stuff including saving addresses in Chinese in case a taxi driver can’t understand me, taking photos of notes I’ve written on the blackboard in my classes, and I’ve saved scans of my passport and other docs in case I need them. Plus I really like the logo.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/evernote/id281796111
a lifesaver for non chinese speakers in beijing is the Beijing Taxi Guide, which has a lot of restaurants, bars, museums, hotels etc with address and phonenr in and a special taxi card function which you can show the cab driver so ou don’t get lost
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beijing-taxi-guide/id287346119?mt=8
just see it also exists for shanghai:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shanghai-taxi-guide/id292704635?mt=8
I second the DianHua dictionary iPhone app, especially now that they although I think they started charging for it. I love that you can now type English, Chinese or pinyin in the search box.
RE: BAS,
For non-speakers, China Easy Call’s mobile translator service is better. (http://chinaeasycall.com) It is not an iPhone app, but you can use the iPhone to call. Sign up for a package and get a live translator every time to get out of those. It is more expensive than the app, though.
Hi, Just wanted to say thank you for this list. I leave for China on Monday, and will be adding these to my ipod today. Very helpful!
For iPhone,if you want to solve the China maps misalignment issue. Try
ABCMaps applciation.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abcmaps/id379582726?mt=8
In China, the built-in iPhone Maps application is distorted and will
show you a position that is 300-1000m randomly from reality. The
ABCMaps application is to align the maps to the real place.
ABCMaps is Chinese only applcation now. However, it is so easy to use.
So even you can not read Chinese you can use it also. The English
version will come out in the future.
ABCMaps is upgraded to version 1.30, English support added.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/abcmaps/id379582726?mt=8
Find out where you are really in China. If you travel in China,
sometimes you will be troubled by China maps offset. The ABCMaps application is to align automatically the maps to the real place .
If available in your area, real-time traffic conditions will be
displayed over the road as color-coded lines by click “Traffic” button.
What’s New In Version 1.30
1. English support added
2. Traditional Chinese support added
3. Small bug fix for iOS 3.0
@ABCMaps despite your spam/ad comment, I tried out your app (it’s free), and it does indeed work really well at giving an accurate geo-location, about 100m off of my actual place, which is a big improvement on the usual 500m+ inaccuracy we usually get in China.
How did you get it to be more accurate?
About the accuracy,since the original offset database is not so accurate. So abcmaps just goes so far on accuracy.