Getting around in China can be tough for newcomers, and even tougher if you’re short on cash. As a fairly recent college graduate without much to spare myself, I’ve compiled 12 apps I used or really wish I had known about when I first arrived in the country. May your travels be merry and many!

Waygo is a translator with a specific vocabulary: food and transport. All you do is hold your iPhone camera over the Chinese text, line it up in the box, and when the app recognizes the characters, the box turns orange and you get a proper translation. Waygo doesn’t claim to be a complete dictionary, you just get a couple of words rather than a befuddling list of definitions — enough so that you know what you’re ordering or where you need to go. It’s far superior for these purposes compared to your average dictionary app and doesn’t require an internet connection.

You can also translate several lines of characters at once, which is a clear time-saver when you’re tackling a menu, be it a Western or Chinese cuisine. Your first 100 translations are free (each individual line of text counting as one translation), after which time you’re limited to 10 per day. If that’s not sufficient, then you’ll need to upgrade to the paid service, a one-off payment of GBP 11 ($18). An Android version has been promised for sometime, but isn’t available yet.