How to order food in China without speaking any Chinese

Nearly everything you order in China is ordered by tapping a screen, not by talking. Most restaurants, down to cheap noodle shops, stick a QR code to the table, and the menu, the order and the payment all happen inside WeChat or Alipay. What you must do is set those two apps up with an international card before you fly.

Set up before you fly

1. Install WeChat and Alipay at home and register with your home phone number. Both send an SMS code, and sign-up is unreliable once you are on a Chinese network.
2. Complete passport verification inside each app, then bind a Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, Discover or Diners card. Payments of ¥200 or less carry no platform fee; above ¥200, Alipay and WeChat Pay add 3%. Your own bank may add a foreign transaction fee on top.
3. Set WeChat to English and turn on translation: Me > Settings > General > Translation. The built-in translator covers 18 languages, and with the app in English, scanning a restaurant menu code often opens the menu in English by itself.
4. Download Google Translate's offline Chinese pack on home Wi-Fi. Google's mainland translation service was discontinued in October 2022, so the online app fails there; the offline pack handles typed text and, on most phones, camera overlay. Apple Translate, Microsoft Translator and Baidu Translate work unblocked as backups.

At the table

1. Scan the code with the scanner inside WeChat or Alipay, not your phone camera. Restaurant menus are usually mini-programs, and they frequently fail to open in Safari or Chrome.
2. If it opens in Chinese, tap the three dots in the top right and choose Translate. If that option is missing, screenshot the menu and run the screenshot through your translation app instead.
3. Order from the photos. Images, prices and portion size usually tell you what you need — chicken or pork, soup or stir-fry — even when the translated name is nonsense.
4. Check the price basis on seafood. Fish and crab are often priced per 500g (一斤) rather than per dish, so a ¥58 fish can arrive on the bill as ¥140 once it has been weighed.
5. Set the heat in the app rather than by voice: 不辣 no chilli, 微辣 mild, 中辣 medium, 特辣 extra. In Sichuan and Hunan, mild is still hot.
6. Enter the table number if the app asks. Order fewer dishes than feels right; plates are shared, not individual.
7. Pay on the same screen. Look for 茶位费, a tea and seat charge of ¥5–15 per person that many restaurants add automatically.

If the QR code does nothing

Ask for 纸质菜单 — a paper menu. Restaurants keep them for older customers, and staff can also take your order on their own device. Pointing at a dish on another table works too: hold up one finger and say 我要这个.

Delivery to your hotel

In Alipay, search 美团外卖 or 淘宝闪购. Delivery fees run ¥3–8 and meals ¥15–40. The fiddly part is the address: ask your front desk to type it in Chinese into your phone before your first order, which is far easier at a hotel with a staffed desk than at an apartment-style let.

If you are still choosing where to stay, you can compare all the main booking sites first.

Last checked: 2026-10-01