I have installed Baidu map app on my Samsung so I can find my way to hotels and hostels in China as Google Maps dont work there. Works fine.
Works fine with map of Australia in English, but Chinese maps in Chinese.
However, the app sends me a message every day in Chinese and I have no idea what it is saying.
Is it asking me to send money, or it it some kind of ad or some kind of update or what?
Google maps works fine if you have a VPN. Otherwise check also maps.me which is in English. While it is not populated with much information, it is still useful. It works offline if you downloaded the map beforehand.
Try OsmAnd+ map, also an offline map but with a lot more features then Maps.me. You can switch to any language you like. I use all four, Baidu, Google, Maps.me and OsmAnd+.
All I need it for is to get to hotel in Harbin and Chengde on the airport/local bus.
I made the mistake of booking Harbin hotel in middle of no-where instead of the one I planned to book just near St Sophia.
So I'll stay with Baidu, and when I leave China I'll delete the app.
In China at the mo.
Google maps works great with VPN.
When in a place with wifi I load up Google maps and zoom in and out on the area I'm headed so it saves it into memory and drop stars on any areas I want to go. Then the GPS on my phone seems to work fine offline.
The Google maps of China are fairly out of date. The main thing we have noticed is a lot more metro lines and stations.. but other than that it works great. I also have a local sim with a bit of data on encase I run into issues.
Google translate with Chinese downloaded offline translations is very useful for menus. You just point your camera at it and it works.. not always 100%.. but it normally gives you some idea
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