Does a potential trip to China scare you? Here is the post you were waiting for and the applications to keep in mind and download on your mobile.
I want to talk a little about the trip to China because I think I would have avoided several headaches and bad moods if someone had given me a sort of entry vademecum before starting to move in this beautiful but… very complex country!
The aspects to be explored would be so many, and I prefer to go by topics hoping that someone can benefit from this short article.
Advance that I travel to China for work, however, although some indications may be more addressed to those who will go for the same reason, surely everyone can enjoy this information during a trip.
How to organize yourself while traveling
China is a country that has been involved for some time by extraordinary and above all extraordinarily sudden economic development. The people who live there are many, the numbers of the inhabitants of the cities are almost impressed by how high they are, and all this would be really very complicated to manage without the help of technology, more specifically applications (yes those for mobile !).
Wechat, how it works
There is no person in China who does not have a telephone, and this is now a widespread practice in much of the world, but here they do not part with it even to go to the bathroom.
But let's talk about the first true deity to praise and above all download: Wechat.
In recent years this application has completely revolutionized the way of life of the Chinese and consequently of those who find themselves having to approach China. Generally speaking, if we Westerners are used to using different social networks for different activities (example: Linkedin for work), Wechat contains all kinds of "digital identity" in a single platform.
It is linked to a telephone number (any, not necessarily Chinese) and there is a chat, like the classic Whatsapp, and a bulletin board, like that of Facebook, where the various contacts publish photos, articles, etc. Unlike Facebook, where you can have some grievances about accepting strangers because that would give them access to our private moments, exchanging Wechat is like a first handshake between people. How is it exchanged? Via the QR code which has every profile.
This was the most basic part. There are also company pages, public profiles, etc ... and this is used to follow the updates of interlocutors that interest us according to the sector in which we operate.
Therefore it is also very useful for professionals because you can exchange heavy files, make conference calls, group chats, and so on. This totally has the use of emails is placed in the background.
Wechat and credit cards
Moving on to everyday life between taxis, restaurants and shops, it is useful to link a prepaid or credit card to your Wechat account, because yes, you can also pay with Wechat. Therefore, you will also find the purchasing system revolutionized, that is: get ready for those who refuse your banknotes, always carrying your credit card with you.
Other recommended apps
Closed the Wechat chapter, I also think applications such as Didi express, also downloadable in English, which gives you the opportunity to call a car; depending on the budget there are various rates for different types of cars. The fundamental recommendation is to always have an address written in Chinese at hand, because communication with the drivers is very difficult, they often speak only Chinese, and it is not necessarily Mandarin. And never forget to bring the ticket with the address of your hotel.
Finally, I also find another application called Sherpa's for the Delivery only in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou… for now!
