Best Audio Guide Apps for China in 2026: Compared Side by Side
We make ChinaWalk, one of the apps compared here. We've tried to be fair about where other apps do better. Drafted with AI assistance, reviewed and edited by the CityYoYo team.
Every "best apps for China" list tells you to get Alipay, Amap and a translator. Almost none of them answer the question you'll actually have on day two: what am I looking at?
Visa-free travel to China has taken off. Visa-free entries rose almost 50% in 2025, to about 30 million. That means a lot of first-time visitors are standing in front of temples, gates and hutongs with signs they can't read. Audio guide apps are supposed to fix that. But the options for China are very different from those for Paris or Rome, and most of the big Western tour apps barely cover the mainland.
Here's how the main options compare for foreign travelers.
The short answer
Use the official Palace Museum app inside the Forbidden City. Use ChinaWalk everywhere else. Pick WeGoTrip or TravelMate if you want a paid, pre-recorded route in Beijing.
No single app does everything. Curated apps go deep on a few famous sites. Chinese domestic apps cover thousands of scenic spots but are built for Chinese speakers. Western tour apps are built for foreigners but have very little content in mainland China. ChinaWalk fills the gap between them: any place, in your language, without a VPN.
Comparison table
| App | What it covers in China | English / other languages | VPN needed? | Offline | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChinaWalk | Any place you tap, in any Chinese city: landmarks, alleys, teahouses. Hands-free Tour Mode while you walk | Narration + translated map labels in EN, KO, ES, PT, FR, ZH | No | Offline maps; narration needs a little data | Free |
| Palace Museum app (official) | The Forbidden City only. Hundreds of GPS-triggered points | Has an English version of the guide; app is Chinese-first | No | Partial | Free |
| Sanmaoyou (三毛游) | 15,000+ scenic spots and museums, with GPS auto-play and hand-drawn maps | Mainly Chinese; limited English | No | Yes (download) | Freemium; many spots paid |
| WeGoTrip | A small number of fixed routes, e.g. a 2-hour historic Beijing walk | Several languages | Download before you go | Yes | Per tour (~$11 for Beijing) |
| TravelMate | Beijing landmarks: about 145 minutes of professionally recorded audio | EN, FR, ES, IT, DE, RU, ZH | Download before you go | Yes | Paid |
| VoiceMap | Very few mainland tours (Shanghai has one); more in Hong Kong | Mostly English | Download before you go | Yes | ~$3–8 per tour |
| GPSmyCity | A handful of self-guided walks in Shanghai and Beijing; mostly text, not audio | Mostly English | Download before you go | Yes | Small fee per route |
Based on public app listings and tour pages as of October 2026. Coverage and prices change, so check each app before your trip.
The apps, one by one
ChinaWalk: best for exploring beyond the landmarks
ChinaWalk is CityYoYo's China app. Tap any place on the map and it generates a spoken narration for that exact spot. Nothing is pre-curated, so a neighborhood teahouse with no English sign gets the same treatment as the Bund. Put on headphones and switch to Tour Mode, and it narrates places automatically as you walk past them. You control it with AirPods taps: once for the next place, twice to pause.
Two things are built specifically for China. It works without a VPN, tested on local carriers and wifi. And it translates place names on the map as well as the narration, so you can tell what a pin is before you tap it.
Where it falls short: each narration needs a small amount of data, so it isn't fully offline the way a downloaded tour is. Because it's AI-generated rather than written by a historian, it won't match the depth of a museum's own guide at a single major site.
Palace Museum app: best inside the Forbidden City
If you're spending half a day in the Forbidden City, the official app is hard to beat there. It has hundreds of explanation points, GPS auto-play, beautiful hand-drawn maps, and several narration versions, including an English one. The catch: it only covers the palace. The museum also publishes several separate apps, and only some of them are on Android, so make sure you install the right one.
Sanmaoyou (三毛游): deepest coverage, if you read Chinese
Sanmaoyou is one of the biggest audio guide apps among Chinese travelers. It covers more than 15,000 scenic spots and museums, with GPS-triggered narration and an AI guide. For coverage inside China, nothing else comes close. But it's designed for Chinese-speaking users, with limited English, so most foreign visitors will find it hard to use.
WeGoTrip and TravelMate: best for a fixed, recorded route
Both sell pre-made audio tours you download ahead of time. That's good if you want a polished, professionally narrated walk past Beijing's big sights and a fully offline experience. The trade-offs: you pay per tour, you follow their route, and there's not much outside Beijing.
VoiceMap and GPSmyCity: great elsewhere, thin in China
Both are excellent in Europe and the US, and both have a few walks in Shanghai or Beijing. If one of their routes matches your plans, it's worth a look. But for most mainland cities you'll find little or nothing. GPSmyCity's China walks are mostly written, not narrated.
How to pick
- One big site, lots of time: the official app for that site (Palace Museum), or the rented audio device at the gate.
- A fixed, polished route in Beijing: WeGoTrip or TravelMate.
- You read Chinese: Sanmaoyou.
- You want to wander, in any city, in your own language: ChinaWalk. It covers whatever you happen to walk past, including the many places no tour includes.
Whatever you choose, install it before you fly. Google Play isn't available in mainland China, and downloading tours over hotel wifi behind the firewall can be slow. For the rest of your China app setup (payments, maps, VPN questions), see Do You Need a VPN for a China Travel App?
Hear the story of any place in China, in your language, no VPN.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best audio guide app for China?
It depends on where you'll be. Inside the Forbidden City, the official Palace Museum app has the most detailed content. For everywhere else, including hutongs, neighborhoods, temples and streets that no tour covers, ChinaWalk is the most flexible option for foreign travelers: it generates a narration for any place you tap, in English, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French or Chinese, works without a VPN, and is free. For a fixed, professionally recorded route in Beijing, WeGoTrip and TravelMate are paid alternatives.
Is there an English audio guide app for the Forbidden City?
Yes. The official Palace Museum app includes an English version of its audio guide, with GPS-triggered explanations across the palace. You can also rent an audio guide device at the entrance. ChinaWalk narrates the Forbidden City in English too, and keeps working once you leave, covering Jingshan Park, the hutongs and the streets around the palace.
Do I need a VPN to use an audio guide app in China?
Not for ChinaWalk, which is built to work in mainland China without a VPN. Apps whose tours you download in advance, such as WeGoTrip, VoiceMap, TravelMate and GPSmyCity, play offline once downloaded, but you should download them before you arrive, because the stores and servers they rely on may be slow or blocked in China.
Is there an AI tour guide app for China?
Yes. ChinaWalk uses AI to generate a narration for whatever place you tap on the map, or automatically for places you pass in its hands-free Tour Mode, which you can control with AirPods taps. Because nothing is pre-recorded, it covers small places like teahouses and alleys as well as major landmarks. Sanmaoyou also offers an AI guide, but its app is designed mainly for Chinese-speaking travelers.
Which China audio guide apps work offline?
WeGoTrip, TravelMate, VoiceMap and GPSmyCity tours work fully offline after you download them, and Sanmaoyou supports offline downloads too. ChinaWalk offers offline city maps for any Chinese city, but it needs a small amount of data to generate each narration.
Are China audio guide apps free?
ChinaWalk and the Palace Museum app are free. WeGoTrip, TravelMate, VoiceMap and GPSmyCity charge per tour or route, usually a few dollars up to around $11. Sanmaoyou is freemium, and many scenic spots are paid.