Follow our WeChat Public Account!

Calling all eager renters.

In addition to liking us on Facebook (facebook.com/Koombah) and following us on Twitter (@koombah), you can also add us on WeChat! For those WeChat users, particularly those living and working in China, this is another way for you to interact with us and ask questions. Mainly, we will be posting up available apartments that may be of interest to you.

To follow us, follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Open WeChat
2. Press the upper right button and select “Scan QR Code”
3. Scan this QR code below:

 

So in addition to checking out our various media outlets, as well as our website, you can receive messages directly on your smartphone. We believe that this will be very helpful and more engaging for users, who may not be on social media streams everyday.

And if you’re in China and you haven’t already discovered what WeChat is, please check out our previous posting about the awesome mobile app.

WeChat: The Ultimate Chatting App. Period.

For any expat moving to China, upon arrival should download this app immediately to their handsets. Tencent’s WeChat (locally known as Weixin) is quite possibly the most useful app available on the Chinese app market. This handy chat tool is used primarily for casual communication but can also spill into the workplace environment as a collaboration tool. Because its convenient nature and comprehensive features, it’s surprising that WeChat hasn’t reached the mainstream audience of Western countries.

We all know that SMS is an aging messaging tool that is constrained within its own limits, such as absurd overage charges, character limitations or lack of group chat to name a few. While Whatapp, the US-based instant messaging system solves these fundamental problems, the innovation seemed to stop there. Meanwhile, the creators of WeChat have refined said problems as well as add their own unique features to surpass the capabilities of what short messaging can really be, especially in the age of 3G/4G and the advent of superphones.

Basic Features

The biggest complaint that SMS users have these days is that they texts are available only with a monthly plan. Sure, there are unlimited text plans, but for those who have a monthly limit, over-texting can be costly. WeChat is a free app that requires very little of your monthly data plan or is just plain free on WI-FI. And because it doens’t use a SMS plan, WeChat is on the same level as E-mailing because it lets you send internationally messages.

For many texters with a monthly cap, sending and receiving texts add up real fast, especially when engaged in a conversation. To make matters worse, there’s a 160-character limit. SMS messages, sent and received, add up real quick and should be used efficiently. It can get a little irksome when someone sends one-word texts such as “yes”, “no” or “k” because it’s essentially a waste of a text. WeChat has no such character limit making conversations seem like a seamless chat on your phone without worrying about overages or character conservation.

Another problem with SMS is that sometimes,  you may want to communicate with a group of friends. While a group blast is suitable, the recipient is not aware of who else was involved in the message and thus a communication breakdown. WeChat’s group chat feature, simply add who you want into the group and start messaging away. Others may also add whom they feel are relevant to the group as well. And if you wanted to say something off the record from the group, simply private message the intended recipient. This works really well as a collaborative tool for teams and/or associations to keep everyone in the picture.

Cool Features

This where WeChat sets itself apart from its US counterpart. It’s like WeChat took casual communication to new level. One feature that is quite popular is the voice chat feature, which allows friends to leave a voice message up to 1 minute for each other to hear. When used properly, this neat feature becomes a walk-talkie and replacement for a phone. No minutes are charged as it only uses your 3G or WI-FI. Voice chat is most useful when your hands are tied and it’s inconvenient to type out a quick message.

Like with iPhone’s built-in Facetime, WeChat’s video call allows users to see each other why they are chatting. Provided that your phone has a front-facing camera, video call lets you use your data plan or WI-FI to make a mobile video chat. One cool tip, is that you can toggle between video mode and handset mode. If you turn into handset mode, then you have yourself a phone running on data or WI-FI. Be careful with this feature though, because using it on 3G will eat up your data plan.

WeChat allows you to add friends through various methods. Besides detecting your friends from your contact list, you can also use the QR code scan, look around, and shake features. QR scan let’s users scan each other’s given QR code to connect. Look around utilizes your phone’s GPS to locate other WeChat users nearby you. Shake is the most unique in that both you and your friend can shake your phones to add each other. Some of these features may seem gimmicky, but it’s sure more convenient than typing in your friends’ ID name to add them.

Since social sharing is all the rage these days, WeChat decided to employ its own mini-social network that allows users to post status updates or pictures to share with contacts. Moments is not as substantial as Facebook’s or even Sina Weibo’s mobile platform, but it’s taking the right step toward building its own dedicated community. Other mobile apps have already employed functions to allow you to post their material on Moments. In due time, Moments will likely be just as powerful as any social sharing platform out there.

The one feature that really takes advantage of technology these days is the Web Grab feature. Web Grab allows users to seamlessly pull images from webpages straight to your phone. No cables or saving are required, bit just a simple plug-in on your browser. Once you see an online picture you want to save and/or share on WeChat, simply wave your phone in front of your monitor and the image will be transferred from your computer to your phone within seconds. You can then take this photo to share with a friend or a group of friends on chat or on Moments.

That’s a lot of features packed into one app. But what really makes WeChat special is that it manages to blend them all in seamlessly for a truly great user experience. Because of it’s ubiquitous presence in China, this chat tool has practically replaced the services of SMS. Most people who exchange phone number contacts usually ask to connect via WeChat as well. In short, WeChat is one of the mobile apps that have restored my faith in Chinese innovation. WeChat is available on Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry, and Symbian clients

Popular Sites Blocked in China & Their Alternatives

As a foreigner living in China, inconvenience comes as part of the package, especially regarding the internet. Without paying for a VPN to surf the web in Mainland, you’ll notice that the internet just feels different, major and minor. A major difference is that some websites are completely inaccessible. A slightly more subtle difference is that social-sharing functions are embedded all over websites these days and with some of them being blocked outright, webpages tend to have some broken links. Here are a few major websites that weren’t able to climb over the Great Firewall of China

Facebook

Most expats will find this to be more than an inconvenience. Because many of us are so connected to each other through social networks services, Facebook arguably the most popular amongst them, you may feel like a there’s a void left in your life. China’s government is pretty keen on controlling the masses and “protecting” them from any harmful material. And these days, with news breaking faster on an SNS like Facebook with positive and negative reactions that follow, it only seems logical for the CPC to quarantine a website like Facebook to maintain balance in the realm of public opinion. If Facebook is your main method of staying in touch with friends and family, then China will not be a friendly place for you.

Alternatives: Skype, E-mail, Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo, Renren    

Twitter

I personally don’t have a Twitter account but I’m well aware that this is the other SNS titan that can cause major problems in the Chinese media department. With tweets from famous and regular people becoming instantly posted on a user’s feed, this can be very difficult for the government to control, especially if a scandal were to break out. Therefore the simple solution is to block it outright. Fortunately, micro-blogging has gained massive popularity and China offers domestic Twitter-clones, such as Sina Weibo. In fact, many non-Chinese celebrities have Weibo accounts to further reach the Chinese population. There are some drawbacks though, as these websites are all in Chinese and can be exhausting to read or translate. Also sensitive subjects should be handled with caution, if mentioned at all.

Alternatives: Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo

Youtube

I’m not sure why a video-sharing site would be blocked here. Perhaps it’s because Youtube is owned by Google, but since 2009, the world’s most popular video-sharing platform has been blacked out in China. This is a big problem for me because Youtube has always been a useful site to waste time and watch hilarious clips. Youtube’s blockage is an interesting case however. Without access to funny clips of internet sensations, Chinese video-sharing sites offer a major consolation prize: full episodes and seasons of TV shows. Provided that your IP address is a Chinese one, you can watch great quality streams of many of popular American TV series without paying a fee on Hulu (which you also can’t access anyway).

Alternatives: Youku, Tudou, Funshion

Google Drive

The struggle continues between Google and the PRC because anything launched by Google is abruptly blocked here. Google Docs, a cloud-based collaboration tool that allows user’s to share and maintain documents is apparently a threat to harmony in Mainland China. A more probable reason is to prevent Google from thriving in China and snatch up some market share. Google Drive’s blockage clears the way for domestic products like Baidu’s Wangpan, which offers 5 times the storage space of Drive’s basic offering with 15 GB. If the Chinese clone does not interest you, there are other English alternatives that offer the same basic cloud storage function.

Alternatives: Wangpan, Dropbox, Microsoft SkyDrive, Box.net

5 Chinese Apps Worth Downloading

Since the worldwide acceptance of smartphones, technology has been rapidly establishing new frontiers in the mobile market, and China is no exception. One thing I’ve observed about the Chinese is, whether riding on a subway alone, or sitting at a dinner table with friends, their faces are buried in the small screen of their handsets. Chinese tech companies are certainly aware of the shifting trend of mobile marketability and have created apps to improve the lives of its citizens. Here are a couple Chinese apps that I find myself constantly using. (Warning: some of these apps are not all foreigner-friendly and do require some familiarity of Chinese)

WeChat (微信)

Formerly (and still locally) known as Weixin, WeChat by Tencent acts as an alternative to traditional SMS but packed really cool additional features. One of my favorite features is the “talk” button where you press and hold a button to send a voice message to your contact. When both you and your contact use this function, WeChat turns into a walkie-talkie (or a poor man’s phone) for communication. Another neat feature that WeChat offers is multi-contact texting, a very big missing feature in regular SMS. Once you establish who you want to send a message to, WeChat will create a chat room for you and your multiple contacts to message each other. WeChat can also link to your phone contacts list, Facebook, and QQ account to automatically recommend friends also using this app.  WeChat only requires wireless or 3G (and doesn’t use much data) and best of all, able to chat internationally. WeChat in China has practically replaced SMS and is the de facto method for texting.

Baidu Map

Anywhere else in the world, I would easily choose Google Maps as my go-to GPS. However, because this is China, locating your destination on Google Maps rarely yields accurate results. I’m guessing this is an issue with their bad 关系 (relationship) with the PRC, but many of the destinations Google Maps pinpoints is actually 300-600 meters off its actual location. This is particularly annoying if you have no idea what your surroundings are. Thus, I prefer to use Baidu Maps, which offers the same functions as Google (public transit, driving and walking directions). The one drawback with this app is that it’s almost entirely in Chinese. Road maps and directions are in Chinese and inputting your destination requires Hanzi’s or at least some correct pinyin spelling. So while it’s not as foreigner-friendly, at least you can safely assume that the the destination is accurately pinpointed and will get you where you need to go.

Baidu Music

China is notorious for bootlegging but has been taking steps toward clearing its name. Officially named Baidu 音乐 (Music) over here, China’s music service is free and apparently legal. Provided that you’re located in China and have a Chinese IP, it’s all fair game. Baidu Music allows users to stream Chinese music as well as Western hits. If you really like the song, you can download it with the press of a button to listen offline. And If you feel like singing along with the song, Baidu Music provides dynamic lyrics to do that. Since I’ve been here in China, I’ve slowly made a nice collection of music through this app, guilt-free. If you enjoy listening to music but hate feeling like a pirate, why not take advantage while in Mainland?

Weibo

With the majority of China’s youth glued to their handsets these days, it’s no surprise that SNS’s have put a lot of effort into developing slick mobile apps to accompany their desktop counterparts. Such is the case with Sina’s Weibo mobile app. With available versions on iPhone, Android and Blackberry, Weibo mobile allows you to seamlessly update your followers through your phone just as you would on a  computer. Weibo also allows you to check-in and share your current location with friends as well as see who else is in the vicinity. So whether you’re in a cafe, a popular restaurant or the Great Wall of China, Weibo allows you to shout out to the 1.3 billion audience members where you are. Another feature on the mobile app is the Instagram-like ability to put various types of filters on the pictures you take, in case you feel like sharing photos and putting a pseudo-vintage spin on it. Although WeChat may be giving it a run for its money, Weibo is probably the most used Chinese app in China.

DianPing

Yelp’s Chinese counterpart has made its way to the masses here at the PRC. Using your phones, GPS, DianPing shows you all the restaurants, cafes, bars, movie theaters, and KTV bars in your vicinity. Each restaurant listed comes with aggregated user reviews and provides an average cost per person. DianPing also has downloadable coupon/groupons attached to participating restaurants, when available. The best part about DianPing is that you don’t really need to understand Chinese to use this app. With a little common sense, it’s actually quite intuitive. For those who look simply at the average price and rating of a restaurant and don’t bother with reading reviews, this app is worth a download.

Our New Koombah Website Has Launched!

Transforming China’s rental market into a more trustworthy, transparent and efficient place – online

We are very proud to announce that our new website Koombah has now officially launched! Like a precious little baby, we have been conceiving the idea and the product for a very long time and now we have brought a new living and breathing start-up into the world. Currently it even looks bare as a baby’s bum, so that’s why we look to you to help us nurture it to become healthy and thriving.

Although we have a new website, we are staying true to the vision of transforming China’s real estate market into a more trustworthy, transparent and efficient place. For those who have experience dealing with renting in China, you must know how painful it is.

The re-incarnation

You might be wondering what has changed since the old site so let me explain. Since May this year, our former site was a very basic informational site. Potential renters could click a button called ‘Help me now!’ and it would take them to a form to fill in the details of their rental property search in Beijing. We then acted as consultants to find and manage the whole housing process from search to set-up.

The new Koombah website is a major update. The key difference is that the new site is a platform for people with rental property to list and for renters to search for high quality property. We will connect renters with property listers and manage both the listings and the search process. So instead of renters telling us what they are looking for and us going out to our network of agents to source property, renters will be able to select property on the website and we will connect them directly to the property lister. The best part for renters is that it will all be totally FREE!

Who is it for?

The focus of our site is currently on the medium to long-term residential rental market in Beijing (medium meaning 3 months to a year). The site is obviously in English so you must be thinking it is for the foreign market. It is true we are targeting the foreign expat market in Beijing, but of course that does not prevent local Chinese to use the site. The problems of trust, transparency and efficiency are equally painful for expats and locals alike and we are driven to make the real estate market better for everyone.

For people with rental property available to list on the site, you could be a real estate agent, a landlord, a sub-letter or someone looking for a roommate.

How it works

Firstly, people with available property for rent in Beijing can list on the site for FREE. The usual details of location, price, time period of availability, features and photos can be uploaded. After uploading the details of the property, you must submit it for approval. After we check that your listing looks good, we will approve it so it will become public on the website. If someone is interested and inquires about your property, we will contact you to arrange a time for inspection.

For people looking for available property for rent in Beijing, you can do it on our site for FREE! After signing up to become a user, log on to the site to search or “favorite” properties. If you see anything you like and want to actually inspect the property, you must click “Inquire Now”. After you inquire for a property, we will contact you and let you know if you can view the property. If it’s still available, we will arrange a time and place and let you know who to meet. If you decide to make an offer for the property and want to sign the lease contract, contact us and we will help you look over the contract, negotiate the deal and help you move in. Once you have signed, we offer premium services for a fee; from helping you move your stuff in, set up internet, finding a cleaner and ordering a water machine for drinking water.

Try it out now!

So if you have available rental property, upload your property on koombah.com or tell your friends with available property about it too.

The site is brand new so we will be spending a lot of effort on populating the site with great high quality and real property listings. For renter’s you will have to bear with us as we work hard to source these properties for you. However, even if you don’t find anything on the site that is suitable for you, you can still contact us through the site and we can still find it for you.

A big thanks!

This website has been a long journey but this is just the start of the next level. We have built the rocket but now it is time to make it take off into infinity and beyond! There are many people who have helped us get to this point and I want to give a special shoutout for everything they’ve done. We will always be grateful to you for your time, effort and most of all belief that what we are doing is important.

Special thanks to, Timothy Wang, Jayapal Dharmamani, Peter Gent, Ben Chiang, Adam Pan, Will Chang, Logan Gong.

Get in touch

As a start-up, we thrive and improve on feedback from real users. If you have comments, feedback both good and bad, please click the red ‘feedback’ link on the right side of the website.

If you have general questions about anything, you can contact us at hello@koombah.com.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jason Lim

How to Purchase Android Apps in China

If you’re an owner of an Android phone in China, then you may be wondering why some apps cannot be found on the Google Play store. More specifically, you can’t find apps with an option to upgrade to a Pro version. In other words, you can’t purchase Android apps in China. Sometimes, even the free version of the app are mysteriously gone. A mobile VPN won’t even help. This is due in major part to the rocky relationship between Google and China. Because Google continually fails to abide by China’s censorship laws, the CPC returns the favor by occasionally blocking Google products outright, including it’s app store. If you’re an Android user and annoyed by this inconvenience, fear not; there’s a way to circumvent this.

I should be a little more clear about purchasing apps in China. As long as there’s a Chinese SIM card in your Android phone, you cannot purchase any apps. Therefore, the logical solution is, when you want to make a purchase, swap out your Chinese SIM card and insert a non-Chinese one. It could be any SIM card, active or inactive, 3G or no 3G. Of course you won’t have any mobile data access with an inactive SIM card in your phone. The next thing you need to have is a wireless connection. This could be with your home connection or at a cafe or even the free 30 minutes at McDonalds. Once you’ve followed these steps, the Google Play app store will return to normal and you’ll have access to all apps, free or paid. And once you’ve downloaded what you want, just swap back in your China card and go about your day.

Basically, it’s quite simple to bypass the blockage so long as you have the 2 essential items: a non-Chinese SIM card and access to a WI-FI connection. One annoying thing to note though, is that apps downloaded through a non-Chinese SIM card needs to be updated the same way. This means that you need to switch SIM cards from time to time in order to receive the push updates. While quite inconvenient, I have found that apps on average update once every 2 weeks. If you set a day, once or twice a month to swap SIM cards, you can receive app updates in bulk. Hope this helps fellow oppressed Android users in China.

Explore Metro: A Useful Site for Subway Info in China

Fellow foreigners who take the subway in China, please check out Explore Metro. Explore Metro provides an interactive map of subways in major cities of China. To date, they have maps for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. They also have maps for city/countries not in China like Taipei, Singapore and Seoul.

After playing around with this website, I can say that this is by far the best interactive subway resource I’ve used because of its clean presentation and detailed station information. Whereas other websites provide very rudimentary and sometimes outdated information, Explore Metro seems have the most current information on the many different stations of a metro system. Simply click on the station you are closest to and the the station you want to get to and Explore instantly calculates the estimated time of arrival the how much it costs to get there. While I live in Beijing and every subway ride costs 2 RMB flat, this is very helpful for people living in Shanghai and Guangzhou where the rates depend on distance traveled. Other useful features are the time tables for the first and last trains of each station so you can plan when exactly to catch the last train ride home.

The mobile app is even more useful for people who are on the go and want to know some quick subway info. If you don’t know where you are, the GPS feature locates the station closest to you and how far away you are from it. The app is available on iPhone, iPad and Android. You’ll have to download the app specific to the city you’re in though.

Whether you use the website or the mobile app or both, Explore Metro will surely help you plan your subway trips around China better. For more information, please check them out at:

http://www.explorebj.com/subway/ (specific to Beijing)

How Foreigners Can Get Involved in a Tech Start-up in China

So you have taken the leap of faith to come to China, good work! Many people come for different reasons, but the most common seems to be the grand market opportunity of an exciting economy. If you are still deciding whether to come, I can understand your dilemma as I was in that position before. Moving to a new country, nonetheless China can be a daunting move which requires boldness and a spirit of adventure. However, after being here for two and a half years, I’ve seen how vibrant and active the tech start-up community here is and now I feel quite at home. Many investors and entrepreneurs feel Beijing is the second largest tech start-up market in the world after Silicon Valley in terms of number of investments but Shanghai also has a tight community of entrepreneurs too. So you’ve made the right choice, just to be here. Get ready to learn and explore!

Survey the land

As a foreigner, if you are not too familiar with the start-up world in China and don’t know that much Chinese, don’t fear! There are a number of English resources to find out a lot of information very quickly. Of course I have to first plug TechNode, because it’s a blog I helped start back in early 2011 and it’s a well known for covering original content about mobile and internet start-ups and tech news in Asia. Our rival blog but also a great source for news is TechinAsia. Both blogs talk about tech news, events, entrepreneur interviews, new start-ups, latest investment news etc. You should be reading and consuming these news sources daily to get a good feel for what is happening in the start-up environment.

Network and get involved!

If you are really eager to get involved in a start-up, there is no better way than to meet people, find relevant connections and try different options. I first came to Beijing to study Chinese, but I also spent a lot of time trying to meet as many people as I could because I knew one day I would come back (it only took 7 months!). It was only before I left that I met David Liu, the founder of Jiepang. We kept in touch when I was back in Australia and eventually he gave me an opportunity to come back to Beijing and get involved in AppStoreConnect, a sister-start-up to Jiepang.

Likewise, I strongly recommend you get out of the building and start meeting people at as many events as possible. One thing for sure, is that Beijing has no shortage of events. These events really prove how powerful the start-up movement is in China and provide a great way to get plugged in. There is Start-up Weekend which has no rebranded to Beijing Tech Hive, a weekend hack and pitch program, iWeekend also runs a similar program but are now adding in more speaking events and forums, Lean Startup Machine runs a course on how to use Steve Blank’s customer development methodology to prove a business idea, Start-up Leadership Program (which I help manage) runs 6 month mini-MBA for entrepreneurs to learn everything about building an idea, product, team and raise money; Barcamp is an open platform for people to share ideas with anyone (I spoke at the last one in September) and Sandbox is a network for young leaders and entrepreneurs around with world (I am a member in the Beijing Hub). With such a frequency and range of events to choose from, there is no excuse not to get involved. There is a very high chance you will meet someone you can help you or at least introduce you to a tech start-up to join.

Do it Yourself!

The most obvious way to get involved in a start-up is to do your own. If you are targeting the domestic market whether it is the local Chinese or foreigner market, it would be wise to really understand the market dynamics before you do anything. Being an entrepreneur does take guts but it also takes an ability to be humble and not think you know everything. Especially in China where customs and culture is so different and in many cases opposite to other countries, I suggest really learning about your potential customers and competitors first. By just living here you will identify many gaps and opportunities in the market that needs to be filled.

Once you think you have a solid foundation to go ahead and do it, it is worth performing in-field market research using the lean start-up methodologies to test if your hypothesis is correct or not. Jump ahead to your conclusions, you need to start building your team and your product. If you are a foreigner without any recognized history of success, it is unlikely you will get funded based on just an idea. Get a Minimum Viable Product or MVP done and ship it to the market for testing, feedback, iteration and get traction. Then go out to raise money.

Content originally posted on Startup Noodle

Mobile Apps to Help you Survive in China

Living in a country where you don’t speak the language is tough. Not being able to read and understand the language only makes matters worse. Fortunately, we live in an age where handsets are the new Swiss Army knives, able to navigate you through any jam. For smart phone users, there are a couple very useful apps that will help guide you through trouble and misunderstanding in China.

Hanping Chinese (Android)

Hanping Chinese is an offline English-Chinese dictionary that can help you search for words that you’e unfamiliar with, or want to say something in Chinese but don’t know how to say it. The app recognizes English, pinyin and hanzi (汉字; Chinese characters), simplified and traditional, and comes with definitions for each word. Another nice touch is that it displays appropriate classifiers for a given word (example: clothes/yi1fu/衣服/CL:件/jian1). There are even Chinese sayings and idioms to really impress your Chinese friends. Hanping is better than a pure translator because it puts words into context for you through definitions rather than a simple translation. This will really help you understand the word you searched for. The app is free and will help add to your Chinese vocabulary.

Google Pinyin IME (Android)

Your phone most likely doesn’t come with any input method. Google Pinyin IME is a free input method to help you type in hanzi and thus save you time. Consider it the mobile version to the keyboard input method found on computers. Depending what you type in your keyboard, the program predicts what characters you are trying to input, listing possible candidates while you’re trying to typing. Once you recognize the character you want, just tap that candidate and it will appear on your text as hanzi. For example, type in woaini (I love you) and “我爱你” will appear as a possible candidate. What’s great about Google Pinyin IME is that it’s integrated with the digital keyboard, meaning you can seamlessly switch it on and off with a simple tap of a button. With its more recent update, Google Pinyin IME offers character handwriting input, making it one of the most complete apps to aid your Chinese. Assuming you have a fair level of pinyin understanding and hanzi recognition, this program will make help you type, or write Chinese at a much higher speed and efficiency.

Pleco Chinese Dictionary (Android, iPhone)

Pleco has been an available app for a long time for iPhone users and has recently made its way to Google Play Store. Similar to Hanping, this app acts as a comprehensive offline Chinese-English dictionary. The app gives you context to a word, providing example sentences to help you fully understand how to use it. Pleco allows you to read, write and speak Chinese to get a translation. Other neat features is a flash card testing system to help you remember those hard to learn words. Something that sets Pleco apart from Hanping is its ability to add add-on’s, paid and free, to further aid your Chinese knowledge. One notable add-on is Pleco’s Optical Character Recognizer, allowing you to instantly look up Chinese using your camera. This can be especially useful when you don’t understand a sign in public. Please take note though, because you will not be able to make purchases while in China via Android.

Google Maps (Android, iPhone)

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten lost in Beijing only to be saved by Google. Though this app is not China-centric in any way, Google Maps has gotten me out of late-night jams better than any method I can think of. The app points out your location via GPS and gives you surrounding information like the closest bus stop or subway station. If you’re planning to go somewhere new, just type in the destination and Maps will tell you how to get there the fastest way possible. If you choose to go places by public transportation, Maps will give you all the possible transit routes to take at that exact time, including estimated time of arrival. Also included are walking and bike routes. One thing to note though, is that because your location is in China, all the signs on Maps will show up in hanzi rather than English, so knowing how to type pinyin is important.

For foreigners who have limited or no knowledge of Chinese, these apps can save a lot of time and frustration. Combine Hanping and Google Pinyin together and you already have a starting foundation to learn Chinese. Google Maps can be a convenient guide if you get lost or you are in unfamiliar territory. Do yourself a favor and download these apps to make your life in China a lot easier.