Taking your iGadget to China with you? Here are five must-have apps that work offline.
1. Pleco Dictionary (free)
Although having a Chinese-English dictionary on your phone does not seem like it would be much use for non-Mandarin speakers, trust me, this thing is amazing. In Beijing or Shanghai you can get by using only English, but once you’re off in the provinces making pointless hand gestures every five seconds, that’s when Pleco will come in handy. Look up words in English, pinyin (Mandarin transliteration) or by stroke order (I’ve yet to come across a character it doesn’t recognise). For an extra USD14.99 ($11.99 for students) you can get the full-screen handwriting add-on, which can identify and define characters written on the screen. If you’ve ever had a Chinese person try to communicate with you by tracing invisible characters on the palm of his or her hand, you will know just how useful this feature is.