LingoMap

Jason Stine

About this app

Need a reliable map app in China that gets you where you need to go? Want to ride public transportation anywhere in China but don't know Chinese? Not yet in China but need to plan your trip? LingoMap is just for you!

LingoMap is a map app for foreigners who cannot read Chinese to use in China. It is a translation of Alibaba Maps (known as AMap and 高德地图). It shows place, transit route, and street names in the original Chinese, Mandarin Pinyin, and English.

- Get directions for taking buses, trains, subways, trams, by walking, and by taxi
- Find places by searching in English, pinyin, or Chinese characters
- Discover restaurants entertainment venues, business destinations, and other places useful for foreigners in China
- Match translations of Chinese characters in search results and directions based on their color
- Share any place with friends: they can get directions to your place in just a couple clicks!

You also can:
- Bookmark/save places
- Long-press to translate anything on the map
- Get directions by train between cities
- Get a taxi card with translations for showing to cab drivers
- Browse search categories to discover something new
- View different map types including satellite imagery and the Chinese language Alibaba map

Known issues - while LingoMap should generally work fine for everyone, there are some things we're still working on:
- Not yet tested on tablets or non-standard phone size screens
- If you have scaled your device's font size by changing the size via system settings, the app UI layout may not appear correctly. With default font size settings, the app should appear according to the screenshots shown in the app store.
- Sometimes switching map types will cause the app to crash. If the app crashes, simply re-open it and try selecting the map type again.
- As we download map data from different sources, sometimes some visuals such as metro lines and stations may not appear. Try running the app on and off your VPN if you have one. (In general the app should run fine without a VPN.)

We're happy to discuss anything about LingoMap or any bugs you may find! Please get in contact with us by sending us an email: [e-mail]

Ratings and reviews

It used to be useful for getting English-language directions around Shenzhen, China. But then it stopped working completely for directions. I still use it very occasionally if I need to look at a map in English but without the directions feature, it is borderline useless.

Very useful app! sometimes tapping on places found in search bar won't work,and the destinations function doesn't work for all locations. If these two things could improve then it would be perfect

I've been looking for a good replacement for Navigate? Navigator? ever since Amap became Chinese only. Lingomap is it. Delighted to once again have a map that works well in a language I understand.

What's new

- Search directions bug fixes
- Styling to match recently released iOS version
- Locking text font sizes so the layout remains unaffected when the user changes the system font size settings
- Fixed info being cut off at the bottom of the search result/direction details bottom sheets
- Improved opening place link handling
- Only display the "Defaulting to Beijing" prompt once instead of multiple times when the location permission is denied
- Red loading spinner fix