Which Apps Are Blocked in China — and What to Use Instead

Google (Search, Gmail, Maps, Translate, Drive and Play), WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X, Telegram, Signal, Discord, YouTube, Netflix, Spotify and Uber are all blocked on mainland Chinese networks, and the block sits at the network level — changing phones or using a foreign account makes no difference. Each of them has a Chinese replacement, and you need to install most of those replacements before you land, because Google Play is blocked and Apple's China App Store does not list VPN apps.

What you use at home	On the mainland	Use instead
Google Search, Gmail, Drive	Blocked	Bing (cn.bing.com) and Outlook load without any workaround
Google Maps	Blocked	Amap (Gaode) — better English support; Baidu Maps is stronger in rural areas
WhatsApp, Instagram, X, Telegram, Signal, Discord	Blocked	WeChat, the app hotels, guides and drivers will expect you to have
YouTube, Netflix, Spotify	Blocked	Bilibili and iQiyi for video
Uber	Blocked	DiDi, whose international version has an English interface and accepts foreign cards
Airbnb (mainland stays)	Withdrawn in July 2022	Hotels booked on Trip.com, filtered to properties that welcome foreign passport holders
Apple Maps, Apple App Store, Zoom, Microsoft Teams	Work	—

Keeping your own apps working

Two things beat the firewall. The first is an international roaming eSIM: your data is routed through Hong Kong, Singapore or Europe, so WhatsApp and Google open with no extra app and no battery cost. Coverage and price vary a lot between providers, so compare all before you buy rather than grabbing the first result.

The second is a VPN, which has to be bought, installed and tested before you fly. VPN apps were removed from the China App Store, Google Play is unreachable, and provider websites do not load from the mainland, so arriving without one means arriving without one. compare all and pick a service that advertises obfuscated servers, since plain VPN traffic is what gets throttled.

Set up before departure

Alipay and WeChat Pay both need your passport registered and a Visa or Mastercard linked, and verification is easier to finish at home than on arrival. Do it before you go: China is close to cashless, and a foreign credit card alone will not pay for dinner. Amap is worth installing for the same reason — even with a working VPN, Google Maps is offset by hundreds of metres in China because it uses the international WGS-84 coordinate system rather than the GCJ-02 grid the country runs on. Use it for browsing, not for walking directions.

Is a VPN legal for visitors

Article 6 of the 1996 Interim Regulations on international network connections, revised with effect from 1 May 2024, bars any organisation or individual from establishing or using channels other than the state-approved international gateway. The penalty under Article 14 is an order to disconnect, a warning and a fine of up to ¥15,000. Fines have been imposed on Chinese individuals, most notably in Guangdong in December 2018 and Chongqing in January 2019. I found no reported case of a foreign tourist being penalised, but the rule on the books is not written to exempt you.

Last checked: 2026-09-19