Saving and Planning Places on Maps in Beijing: Amap, Custom Lists, and Offline Prep

Getting Amap Installed and Set Up

Amap is available on international app stores in most regions, so you can usually install it before you fly. If it does not appear in your app store, you can download the Android APK from the official Amap website, or get it through a Chinese app store once you land. Create an account with a phone number (an international number usually works for SMS verification [verify before travel]) or log in via WeChat or Alipay. Switch the interface to English in Settings if available — the English translation covers navigation basics, though some menu items remain in Chinese. Key setup steps:

• Download offline maps first — In Settings, find Offline Maps (离线地图) and download the Beijing city pack — roughly 200–400 MB. Do this on hotel or airport Wi-Fi [verify before travel].
• Turn on English labels — Look for a language or display setting that shows English street and station names. Without it, every sign is characters-only.
• Set your home location to your hotel — Tap your hotel on the map, choose Set as Home (设为家), so one tap always routes you back.
• Bookmark the Amap web version — ditu.amap.com works on laptops and is handy for planning on a bigger screen, though it is mostly Chinese-language.

Saving Places and Building Custom Lists

The core habit for trip planning is simple: every place that interests you gets saved the moment you see it in a guide, blog, or video. In Amap, search the place name (paste Chinese characters for the most reliable results), tap the result, then tap Collect (收藏, the star icon). Places land in your Favorites folder (收藏夹), where you can create named collections such as 'Day 1 — Forbidden City area', 'Food', or 'Backup rainy-day options'. Practical tips for Western visitors:

• Save places with Chinese names copied — Copy the Chinese name from the source (e.g. 故宫, 南锣鼓巷) and save it in your list. Showing the characters to a driver or passerby works far better than English.
• Save a metro exit, not just the landmark — Amap lets you save specific station exits. Large stations like Xidan or Dongzhimen have many exits, and the wrong one can add a 10-minute walk.
• Save restaurants and check opening times — Amap listings often include hours and phone numbers, but details can be stale — confirm hours before a long trip [verify before travel].
• Use Favorites as your itinerary, not a separate app — For each day, keep a collection of 4–6 saved points. Amap shows them on the map so you can spot which ones cluster together geographically.

Going Offline and Handling No-Signal Moments

Even with a Chinese SIM or eSIM, you will hit dead zones inside the subway, in basement malls, and in remote corners of places like the Great Wall sections. Three things keep you functional offline: the downloaded Beijing map pack, your saved Favorites (which render without data), and screenshots. Before leaving the hotel each morning, screenshot your first two destinations and the metro line diagram. Amap's offline mode handles search and routing for saved and nearby places, but live transit times and traffic need a connection [verify before travel]. If you rely on a VPN for Western apps, remember VPNs can be unstable — never make Amap your backup plan on a VPN-dependent setup. Consider a physical backup: many hotels offer free paper maps at the front desk, and writing your hotel's Chinese address on a card is an old trick that still saves people daily.

Related Beijing guides

If you found this useful, these cover the next question most visitors ask:

• Transport — Maps and Navigation in Beijing: Amap, Apple Maps, and Why Google Maps Lets You Down
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