You should visit China. It’s vast, very diverse, safe, easy to get around, inexpensive, interesting, not what you expect, and increasingly important in the world. Go see for yourself.

However, unlike the rest of the world, China uses its own parallel set of apps that you will need to operate there. Here are what I consider the essential mobile apps for independent travel in China. A good rule of thumb is to download your apps outside of China before you leave, because most are behind their great firewall. Make sure you are downloading the “international” version of the app (if it has one) so that it uses English.