What Works Online in China, and What Replaces It

Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp cannot be accessed directly in mainland China, and you need to plan around that before you fly rather than after you land. The workable approach is to rearrange your phone around the apps that do work: WeChat, Alipay, Amap, 12306 and a translation app. Set them up, sign in and download offline maps while you still have your home connection.

Last verified: 29 October 2026 · Sources: Travel China (Ministry of Culture and Tourism), Chinese embassy notices, National Immigration Administration

Which websites and apps do not work in China?

Google’s search, Gmail, Maps and Drive; YouTube; Facebook; Instagram; and WhatsApp are the services visitors notice first, and the list extends to others run by the same companies. The practical effect is that a phone set up in Europe or North America loses its map, its mail, its messaging and its photo backup at the same moment. None of this is a surprise to anyone who plans for it.

Due to internet regulations, websites such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp cannot be accessed directly in China; using these services requires a VPN. Please download and install a reliable VPN app before entering China, because some VPN apps are not available in local app stores in China.

That paragraph is from Travel China, the English-language site run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in guidance dated 17 March 2026. It is worth reading twice, because it answers the two questions visitors ask: which services are affected, and when the workaround has to be installed. The answer to the second is before departure, not after arrival.

What it does not say is that any particular app will work. Do not assume one will. VPN performance in China varies by network, by city and by week, and an app that connected for one traveller last month may not connect for you. Treat connectivity as something that may work rather than something you are entitled to, and arrange your trip so that the failure of any single app does not strand you.

What do the rules say about VPNs?

The rules are narrower than the internet’s argument about them. Unapproved VPN services are illegal to operate in China, and the regulatory pressure falls on providers and sellers rather than on individual visitors. For a tourist, personal use sits in a grey area rather than in a clear prohibition or a clear permission, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.

What that means in practice is a set of sensible limits. Install a mainstream app before you travel, use it for what you need, and do not resell access to anyone or set yourself up as a local provider. Do not rely on a workaround for anything urgent: confirm flights, hotel addresses and payment apps through services that work without one. And keep in mind that the legal position for operating an unapproved service is clear even where the position for using one is not.

• No tool recommendations here. Naming a service would date this page within weeks and would read as a promise nobody can make.
• Install before you fly. Chinese app stores may not carry the app you need, and the download itself may be the thing that fails.
• Have a plan B for each service. Mail, maps and messaging should each have a second route that works without help.
• Do not build a business on it. Reselling access, or providing it to others, moves you from the grey area into the clearer one.

Which apps do you actually need?

Eight apps cover almost everything a visitor does in China, and most of them are useful only if you set them up before you arrive. The table below is the stack to build, in the order worth building it. Alipay matters most: it is the app that pays, hails cars and generates the metro code, and it works in English.

The eight apps that replace a Western phone stack in China, October 2026.

App	Replaces	What you use it for	Set up when
WeChat	WhatsApp, messaging	Messaging with hotels and guides, some mini-programs, payments if you register fully	Before you fly, with a foreign number
Alipay	Wallet, Apple Pay, ride-hailing	Paying by QR code, DiDi rides through its mini-program, metro and bus codes in many cities	Before you fly, with identity verification
Amap	Google Maps	Navigation, transit directions and live traffic, in English in recent versions	Before you fly; download city maps
DiDi via Alipay	Uber	Hailing cars without cash, with driver messages translated	Inside Alipay, after card binding
12306	Airline and rail booking sites	Buying and changing train tickets with your passport	Account and verification before you fly
Trip.com	Booking sites	Hotels, flights and trains in English, at a booking fee	Before you fly
A translation app	Conversation and menus	Camera translation of menus and signs, offline packs downloaded	Before you fly, with the language pack
An offline map	Any live map	A saved city map that loads with no signal at all	Before you fly, for each city

Two of these deserve a warning. WeChat is the app most likely to stall: registration with a foreign number works, but the payment features and some mini-programs want a real-name check and a linked card, and some accounts need an existing user to confirm them. And Trip.com is convenient rather than cheap; its fees are the price of an English interface and a working support line.

The mini-program idea is the part that takes visitors by surprise. Many services in China are not separate apps at all but small programs that run inside WeChat or Alipay: a museum ticket, a bus timetable, a restaurant queue, a bike unlock. That is why the two wallet apps matter so much more than any single-purpose app you might have read about, and why a phone without them feels half-finished. Install the two, verify them, and treat the rest as extras.

What should you set up before you fly?

An hour of preparation at home prevents most of the failures that happen in the first 24 hours. The checklist below is ordered by consequence: install first, because installation needs your home app store, then sign in, then download, then verify. Each step is harder to do in China than it is in your living room.

1. Install every app from your home app store, including a VPN app if you intend to use one, before you leave.
2. Register and verify Alipay and WeChat with your home number, and complete identity verification with your passport.
3. Link a card to Alipay, and if possible to WeChat Pay, and test a small payment. The payments guide walks through the screens.
4. Create the 12306 account and let it verify, which can take a day or two. Buy your first train ticket from home if the date is fixed.
5. Download offline maps and translation packs for every city on your route, and screenshot the hotel address and phone number.
6. Save your documents offline: passport photo, visa or entry record, insurance, and the booking confirmations.
7. Arrange data with an international eSIM or your home operator’s roaming pass, as the eSIM guide explains.
8. File the arrival card online if it applies to your trip. Since 20 November 2025 it can be submitted through the National Immigration Administration website, its 12367 app or the WeChat and Alipay mini-programs, and the confirmation saves you filling in a paper form in the immigration hall.

Does hotel Wi-Fi work, and what about offline maps?

Hotel Wi-Fi usually works and is fast enough for messaging and maps, but it is not a substitute for mobile data, partly because it does not travel with you and partly because some networks authenticate by sending a code to a Chinese mobile number. Public Wi-Fi in airports, cafes and stations often has the same gate. Do not count on a hotspot to save you when the data plan fails.

• Offline maps are the real insurance. Download the city map at home, and check it opens in airplane mode, because that is the state you will be in when the data drops.
• Screenshot everything. Hotel address, booking number, train times and the driver’s plate are all more useful as images than as web pages.
• Wi-Fi calling. If your home carrier supports it, your phone can send and receive texts over hotel Wi-Fi, which is how you receive bank codes on a data-only trip.
• No Chinese character knowledge needed, but a hotel card helps. Ask reception for a card with the address on it; showing it to a driver solves more problems than any app.

Roaming or eSIM: which data option?

Roaming keeps your number alive and costs more per day; an international eSIM is cheaper per gigabyte but usually cannot receive texts. For a trip of a week or two the eSIM wins on cost and the roaming line wins on verification codes. The compromise most visitors settle on is an eSIM for data plus their home SIM left active for texts, which needs a phone that takes two lines.

The failure mode to avoid is arriving with neither working. If the eSIM does not activate and roaming is switched off, you have no map, no wallet and no way to message anyone, all at the moment you most need them. Test the eSIM before you fly and keep your home SIM’s data roaming as a paid fallback for the first hour.

Why is everything a QR code?

Because the QR code replaced the card terminal before most visitors arrived. Shops display a code for you to scan, or scan yours, and the money moves inside the wallet. Menus, museum tickets, temple donations, bus fares and restaurant orders all use the same pattern, which is why a phone with no data or a dead battery is a bigger problem in China than in most countries.

Two habits follow. Keep a power bank charged and in your bag, and keep a small amount of cash for the day the phone dies. The second habit feels redundant until it is not: a dead phone is the one failure that cannot be fixed at the counter, and a CNY 50 note buys a taxi ride to your hotel while you work out what went wrong.

FAQ

Can I use my normal apps if I buy a local Chinese SIM?

The SIM changes your data connection, not the rules that apply to it. A local SIM does not remove the restrictions on Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. What it does give you is a Chinese number, which helps with public Wi-Fi logins and some app registrations.

Do I need a VPN to use Alipay or WeChat?

No. Alipay and WeChat are Chinese services and work on a normal connection. The things that need a workaround are the Western services listed above. Setting up your wallet and messaging apps does not depend on any workaround at all.

Which map app should I use in China?

Amap is the practical choice, with English support in recent versions and proper transit directions. Google Maps does not work reliably. Whatever you choose, download the offline map for each city, because the moment you need a map is the moment the connection is most likely to fail.

What if my phone will not connect at all?

Work through the settings in order: the data line, then data roaming, then a restart, then a manual network selection. If none of that works, use hotel Wi-Fi for messaging and ask reception for help. The eSIM guide covers the activation failures in more detail.