While the iPhone hasn’t officially yet come to mainland China (to the glee of black marketeers) Apple’s shiny wonder brick is the modern traveler’s best friend. Beyond the conveniences of Skype, news and weather, here are some Sino-specific apps that have been helpful during our travels in China.
Qingwen Chinese Dictionary – This impressively large dictionary contains over 80,000 entries, ranging from “check please” (maidan) to “Stephanopolous” (“Sitefannuopuluosi”). Mr. Stephanopolous has yet to come up in conversation, but I like to be prepared. Qingwen has been utterly indispensable in our studies here. We downloaded it when it was free, but today at $4.99 the app is still a total steal. Many of the students at our school are using extremely similar dedicated electronic dictionaries that cost upwards of a hundred bucks that don’t do too much more than Qingwen. DianHua Dictionary is a good, free alternative. It’s not as slick as Qingwen but its search function does allow for mixing characters, Pinyin and English.
Currency – There are many currency converter apps out there that want to charge you 99 cents. This one is free, simpler and, therefore, better than all the rest. Enough said.
Lonley Planet Mandarin Phrasebook – There’s lots of phrasebooks scattered across the sprawling app store, but LP’s is the slickest one. With over 600 phrases, easy search and helpful categories, you can quickly find the phrase you’re looking for. Each phrase is written in English, Pinyin and simplified Mandarin characters and also includes an audio option where a native speaker says aloud the phrase. For getting around the country or ordering food it’s quite useful. World Nomads Mandarin Language Guide is a decent, free alternative.
Panda Words – Learning to correctly write Mandarin characters requires three things – practice, practice, practice. But to practice you’ve got to know what order to draw the strokes. Panda words has animated demonstrations of hundreds characters so you can see how it’s done. The app lets you practice write on the screen but if you don’t want your characters looking like they were drawn by a toddler using MS Paint, I recommend sticking with pen and paper.
Beijing Metro – For 99 cents, it’s worth having a complete map of Beijing’s sprawling, and growing, metro in your pocket. All the stations are labeled in Pinyin as well as Mandarin characters. It’s even got a built in taxi card generator, so if you need to get from the hotel to the nearest subway station you can just show your phone to the driver and he’ll be able to read where you want to go.
