Does Google Maps work in China at all?

Effectively, no. Google withdrew its services from mainland China in 2010, its servers are blocked by the Great Firewall, and its coordinates don't comply with China's mandatory GCJ-02 system, which shifts positions by up to about 500 meters (see Wikipedia's overview of China's geographic-data restrictions, verify as of 2026-08). Even with a VPN, the data is years out of date. Use Amap, Baidu Maps, or Apple Maps instead.

Which map app has the best English support?

Apple Maps is fully English with zero setup. Amap launched an English interface for overseas users on January 22, 2025 and expanded to 16 languages by July 2025, per the Shanghai municipal government's announcement, so it's now the best English option that also does transit and ride-hailing. Baidu Maps remains mostly Chinese. For an English-only offline backup, Organic Maps covers every menu and search result.

Can I use map apps without a VPN in China?

Yes. Amap, Baidu Maps, and Apple Maps all use domestic servers and are not affected by the Great Firewall. Organic Maps works offline entirely. Google Maps is the only one that needs a VPN just to load, and even then its coordinates are wrong.

Do I need a Chinese phone number to use map apps?

For basic navigation, no. Amap and Apple Maps work fine without an account. Amap asks for a Chinese number when you save favorites or use some account features, and Baidu Maps expects one at signup. Apple Maps and Organic Maps never ask. If you buy a local SIM, registration takes a couple of minutes.

How do I download offline maps in Amap?

Open Amap, tap your profile icon, select Offline Maps (离线地图), then pick the cities on your itinerary. Download over WiFi before you leave home. Each city pack runs about 200–500 MB, per traveler reports. Offline maps handle walking and driving navigation but drop real-time traffic and live transit times. Redownload if your trip runs longer than two weeks, because the data updates frequently.

Does Apple Maps work offline in China now?

Partly. Since iOS 17 (2023) Apple Maps lets you download a region for offline use, and traveler reports say the feature works in mainland China. What you lose offline is real-time transit, traffic, and the granular exit guidance. For a fully offline setup with trail data included, Organic Maps is the stronger backup.

Which map app has the best public transit navigation?

Amap. It tells you which subway exit to use, which car to board for the easiest transfer, and when the next bus arrives. Baidu Maps runs it close with slightly more bus-route detail. Apple Maps handles basic subway routing in major cities but skips the granular guidance. For pure subway trips, the dedicated MetroMan app is also worth a look.

Best Offline Map Apps for China: Apple Maps vs Baidu vs Amap (2026)

Google shut its search business in mainland China back in 2010, and its maps never came back. Open Google Maps in Shanghai today and your blue dot lands 300 meters from where you actually stand: in a river, on a rooftop, halfway across the street. That’s not a connection problem.

It’s a law problem. China requires every public digital map inside its borders to run on an obfuscated coordinate system called GCJ-02, nicknamed “Mars coordinates,” which shifts true GPS positions by up to roughly 500 meters. The rules are documented in Wikipedia’s overview of China’s geographic-data restrictions, verify as of 2026-08. Google’s global app never reconciles its satellite imagery with that shift, so streets and photos visibly disagree. Add the Great Firewall (Google’s map servers don’t load at all without a VPN) plus data that went stale years ago, and the app fails three ways at once.

You need a replacement. Honestly, you need two or three, because no single app covers English, offline use, and transit detail together. Here are the four that actually work, as of 2026-08.

Why Google Maps fails in China

Three separate failures stack on top of each other.

1. The coordinate offset. Chinese law mandates GCJ-02 for all public maps. Every local app complies, so your pin lands on the real building. Google doesn’t, so your pin lands next to it. The offset isn’t constant either. It varies by location and can reach about 500 meters.

2. The firewall. Google’s tile and search servers are blocked inside China. With a VPN on, the app loads but drags. With it off, nothing appears. Hotel WiFi, subway tunnels, and battery-saver mode all kill VPN sessions, which means Google Maps dies at exactly the moment you’re lost.

3. Stale data. Google hasn’t seriously maintained mainland map data since it pulled out in 2010. Restaurants that closed years ago still show as open. Newer metro lines and station exits go missing. Even expats who keep a VPN running eventually stop trusting it.

Delete it from your home screen before you fly. Seriously.

The four apps, side by side

Feature	Amap (Gaode)	Baidu Maps	Apple Maps	Organic Maps
English interface	Yes (since Jan 2025)	Partial	Yes	Yes
Offline maps	Yes, city packs ~200–500 MB	Yes	Partial, regions on iOS 17+	Yes, whole-country packs
Real-time traffic	Yes	Yes	Partial	No
Subway exit and car guidance	Yes	Yes	No	No
In-app ride-hailing	Yes, English since May 2025	Yes, Chinese only	No	No
Works without a VPN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Needs a Chinese phone number	For some features	For account signup	No	No
Data source in China	AutoNavi's own data	Baidu's own data	Licensed AutoNavi data	OpenStreetMap

The table flattens things a bit. Amap and Baidu are full ecosystems. Apple Maps is a viewer. Organic Maps is a survival tool. The details matter, so here’s the rundown.

Amap (Gaode): install this one first

Amap (Gaode, 高德地图, also known as AutoNavi) belongs to Alibaba and is one of the two map apps China actually runs on. For years its English support was a joke. That changed on January 22, 2025, when Amap rolled out what Pandaily described as China’s first English map built specifically for overseas users. By July 2025 it had added 14 more languages, 16 in total, making it the country’s first multilingual map service, per an announcement on the Shanghai municipal government’s website. Verify at english.shanghai.gov.cn as of 2026-08.

What’s good:

Traffic data. It’s fed by government sensors, taxi fleets, and hundreds of millions of user GPS traces. Accidents and roadworks show up within minutes.
Transit that thinks ahead. Routes tell you which subway exit to take and which car to ride so your transfer tunnel stays short. At mega-stations like People’s Square in Shanghai, which has 18 exits, the wrong choice costs you a five-minute walk.
Offline city packs. You can download city maps before departure, typically 200–500 MB each according to traveler reports. Handy when data drops in tunnels or basement levels.
Ride-hailing in English. The English version added multi-provider car booking in May 2025, complete with fare estimates and aimed squarely at foreign visitors, as SCMP reported. Payment runs through Alipay or WeChat Pay.

What’s still annoying:

Some POI names and menus stay Chinese-only even in English mode. Keep Pleco or a translation app nearby and copy-paste addresses straight from your hotel booking.
Saving favorites and a few account features want a Chinese phone number. With a local SIM that takes two minutes. Without one, you just skip them.

Verdict: the strongest all-rounder, and since the 2025 English overhaul it’s no longer a “learn Chinese or suffer” app.

Baidu Maps: most features, least English

Baidu Maps is Amap’s main rival and, in raw feature count, occasionally beats it.

AR walking navigation. Hold up your camera and arrows render over the live street view. Genuinely useful in Beijing’s hutongs, where every gray alley looks identical.
Deepest POI database. Traveler reports consistently rate Baidu best for finding small shops and hole-in-the-wall restaurants that other apps miss.
Street view in major cities, handy for recognizing your destination before you arrive.
Offline maps covering 200+ countries and regions, according to the app’s official Google Play listing, verify as of 2026-08.

The catch is language. English support is token at best, so you’ll be reading Chinese characters for most of the experience, and account signup expects a Chinese phone number. The home screen also crams in hotels, tickets, and ride-hailing until it resembles a control panel. Powerful, but only worth it if you read some Chinese or don’t mind pointing and tapping.

Apple Maps: the easy English layer

Here’s what most travelers don’t realize: Apple Maps in mainland China runs on AutoNavi’s (Amap’s) licensed data. You can spot the “AutoNavi” credit at the bottom of the screen. So the base data is about as accurate as Amap’s, just served through an English interface with zero setup.

Full English, no account, no VPN required.
Offline regions: since iOS 17 shipped in 2023 you can download a map region to the phone, and traveler reports say it works in China. Good enough to find your way when the signal dies, though real-time transit and traffic don’t come along for the ride.
Siri, CarPlay, and Apple Watch directions all work.

Where it falls short: no subway exit or car guidance, no ride-hailing, and thin coverage outside the biggest cities. Use it for quick English lookups (“nearest pharmacy?”) and keep Amap for anything involving a transfer.

It’s iPhone-only, obviously. Android travelers get an empty row in the table here, which is one more reason to take Organic Maps seriously.

Organic Maps: the offline safety net

Organic Maps is an ad-free, account-free app built on OpenStreetMap data. Download the full China pack before departure and it never needs the internet again.

Everything is English, search included.
Hiking and cycling trail data that the Chinese apps simply don’t carry, which matters on unrestored Great Wall sections or around Yangshuo.
No tracking, no account, no Chinese phone number.

In exchange you give up real-time everything: no transit arrivals, no traffic, no ride-hailing, and small restaurants often missing from search. It’s a backup, not a daily driver. Maps.Me is the older cousin with similar bones, and either one works.

The three-app setup

What experienced China travelers actually carry, judging by expat forums and traveler reports:

Amap as primary. Download offline packs for every city on your itinerary. Use the English UI for transit and walking, and copy-paste Chinese addresses when search fails.
Apple Maps (iPhone) for fast English lookups and shareable links.
Organic Maps with the full China pack, for the moment your SIM dies in a hutong at 11 p.m.

Total setup time on hotel WiFi: about 20 minutes. Total storage: roughly 1–2 GB.

Ride-hailing and payments, briefly

Booking cars from inside Amap means paying through Alipay or WeChat Pay, and both now let tourists bind foreign Visa and Mastercard cards. Verify current limits and fees at alipay.com as of 2026-08. Set that up at home, before you need a car in the rain. DiDi’s standalone app has an English interface too, but Amap’s aggregated booking compares several providers at once, which usually means a cheaper and faster pickup.

None of this needs a VPN

Amap, Baidu Maps, and Apple Maps all run on domestic infrastructure and are untouched by the Great Firewall. Organic Maps doesn’t touch a network at all. Your navigation stack keeps working even on days your VPN is down, and it will be down, because VPN apps fight payment apps and hotel networks constantly.

If you insist on planning routes with Google at the hotel (VPN on, big screen), remember the offset: the pin can be up to 500 meters wrong. Cross-check every destination in Amap before you walk out the door.

Pick Amap, download the offline packs tonight, and stop thinking about it.