China Step by StepPractical intelligence

Maps and navigation in China

The useful question is not which map app is best in China, but which one answers the question you actually have: finding a place, reading a metro or bus route, hailing a car, navigating on foot, or searching a Chinese place name in English. Only part of that matrix rests on anything published. Apple states plainly which Maps features are and are not available in mainland China, and the case for AMap Global rests on an official Shanghai English report of its launch. Everything else on this page — including the scenario matrix itself, and every claim about Google Maps and Baidu Maps — is our own inference with no source behind it, and is marked as such line by line.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

Choosing and installing a map app is one of the few things here that cannot easily be repaired after you land. AMap Global is downloadable from the App Store and Google Play outside China, which is the easy case while you are still at home. Tech media reported in April 2024 that Apple removed several apps from the mainland China App Store at the Cyberspace Administration of China’s request — that report relays an Apple statement rather than an Apple page, and we have not re-checked the current listing status — so the store you will be standing in front of after you land may not hold what you need. The obvious rescue, airport WiFi, is the weakest link of all: venues offering public internet access in China are required to verify users’ real identity, and the common implementation is a phone number plus an SMS code. The scenario decisions below are also cheaper before you fly, because they are what decides which apps you install.

How

  1. Do before arrivalInstall AMap Global, the English edition of Amap, from your home App Store or Google Play. An official Shanghai English tourism site reported its launch on 21 January 2025: the interface and information are entirely in English, key places such as attractions, restaurants and hotels carry English labels, and it offers live traffic, estimated arrival times and lane-level navigation. Fourteen further languages were added on 9 July 2025. What that report does not say is whether an account is required, or whether a foreign phone number is accepted for registration — we have not verified either.2
  2. Do before arrivalInstall every map, messaging and translation app you expect to need from your home app store while you are still at home, and open each one once to confirm the account works. This follows from reporting that apps have been removed from the mainland China App Store on the regulator’s instruction; it is our inference from that reporting, not a published rule about map apps.10
  3. Do before arrivalDo not build the trip around Google Maps. Our reading is that it does not work as a day-to-day navigation tool on mainland Chinese networks, that its mainland business, bus and metro data has long gone unrefreshed, and that China’s legal coordinate system differs from the global one Google uses, which shifts positions. We found no statement from Google or from any Chinese authority saying any of this, we have not tested it on the ground, and this site publishes no method of getting around network controls. Prepare an offline alternative instead: install AMap Global before you fly, and screenshot the Chinese names of your hotel and main destinations.4
  4. Do before arrivalBaidu Maps: we do not recommend it as a first choice if you do not read Chinese, and we want to be exact about why. There is no officially released standalone English edition, and we found no written statement from Baidu on whether an English system language yields an English interface or whether Chinese place names can be searched in English. That is an absence of evidence, not evidence that it fails — the widely repeated claim that switching your phone to English switches the app is a blog claim we could not confirm anywhere official.5

Situation → What to use

Eight situations and what to reach for in each. Four rows rest on a published source; four are our own judgement, and each row says which it is. Read the marks, not the tidiness of the table.

4 of 8 rows carry an official or operator source. 4 are our own judgement with nothing published behind them, marked on the row.

SituationWhat to use
Walking and driving navigationApple Maps works. Apple’s own feature-availability page lists mainland China as supported for turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information, lane guidance, speed limits and custom route creation.Source: Operator or service provider, official channel · verified 2026-09-14
Metro and bus routes — why not Apple MapsApple Maps is the wrong tool, and this is the firmest negative conclusion on the page. The same Apple feature-availability page does not list mainland China under Transit, Look Around, cycling directions or AR walking directions. The feature is absent, not merely inaccurate.Source: Operator or service provider, official channel · verified 2026-09-14
Hailing a rideThe dedicated DiDi app. Official 2025 guidance for foreign visitors says to download it, that it supports registration with a foreign phone number and a foreign bank card, and to pick the service type once pick-up and destination are set. Install 滴滴出行 / DiDi, the mainland China app — not DiDi-Rider, which is what European app stores surface.Source: Chinese government body · verified 2026-09-14
Hailing a ride without installing DiDiThe same official guidance gives two in-wallet routes. In Alipay: 出行 (Travel) → 打车 (Hail a ride). In WeChat: 我 (Me) → 服务 (Services) → 出行服务 or 滴滴出行. Both carry more Chinese than the standalone app, and you still have to be able to search the pick-up place name.Source: Chinese government body · verified 2026-09-14
Finding an attraction, restaurant or hotelOur recommendation is the English AMap Global. What is actually sourced is narrower: that AMap Global has an English interface and English labels on exactly those categories of place. No source ranks it against anything else.Editorial judgement — no official source
Metro and bus routes — what to use insteadOur recommendation is AMap Global, on the strength of it being the English-language tool we can source at all. The negative half of this conclusion has Apple’s page behind it; this positive half has nothing behind it.Editorial judgement — no official source
Working out which way a bus goesA map app that names the terminus and lists the stop sequence, because the two directions of a Chinese bus line have separate stops and the roadside sign may not disambiguate them. On-board announcements are usually in Chinese, with English in some cities — we have not verified that coverage anywhere.Editorial judgement — no official source
Showing a destination to a driverThe Chinese original — never an English name and never pinyin. The hotel’s own Chinese business card, a screenshot of the Chinese address, or the Chinese name a map app shows once you select the destination.Editorial judgement — no official source

What can go wrong

You planned to download the map app on free airport WiFi once you land.

What to do instead Treat public WiFi as unavailable for that purpose. Venues offering public internet access in China are required to implement real-identity verification of users, and the common implementation is a phone number plus an SMS code; whether a specific venue accepts a foreign number for that code is not documented anywhere official. Arrive with the app already installed, over roaming or a travel eSIM set up before departure. Hotels normally hand out a room number or password at the desk.12

You want a definite answer on whether Google Maps will work before you commit to it.

What to do instead There is no honest definite answer to give. We found no source we could cite — from Google or from any Chinese authority — and so we treat it as "may not work" rather than as confirmed either way, and we publish no method of getting around network controls. Plan for the case where it does not: save booking and insurance confirmations as local PDFs or screenshots, download offline maps and offline translation packs, and keep a non-Gmail backup address.11

You opened Apple Maps to plan a subway route and it will not produce one.

What to do instead That is the documented behaviour, not a fault: Apple’s feature-availability page does not list mainland China under Transit. Keep Apple Maps for driving and walking directions, where mainland China is listed as supported, and use AMap Global for metro, bus and ride-hailing instead.1

You read that setting your phone to English gives Baidu Maps an English interface, and after landing it is still all Chinese.

What to do instead That claim circulates on third-party blogs and Baidu has published nothing to support it, which is why we do not repeat it as fact. Use the English AMap Global for searching, and when you need to give an address to a driver use the Chinese original rather than an English translation.5

You read the English name out of the app to the driver, or wrote it down for the hotel desk, and nobody recognised it.

What to do instead English renderings of Chinese place names are not reliable and are not consistent between apps. Before you fly, screenshot or write down the Chinese address of your hotel and of each day’s destination and carry it with you. This whole recommendation is editorial — no official source states it.3

You left installing AMap Global until after you landed.

What to do instead The mainland app-store and network environment can make downloading and signing in — including receiving an SMS code — harder than at home. Install it and open it once before you fly. Our source for the app does not state whether an account is required at all; basic search and route lookup may work without signing in, but we have not verified that.2

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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