American speaking here who spent 2+ years in China. 3) Use fanyi.baidu.com (Baidu's equivalent of Google translate) and translate.bing.com -- both work really

American speaking here who spent 2+ years in China. 3) Use fanyi.baidu.com (Baidu's equivalent of Google translate) and translate.bing.com -- both work really well in my honest opinion, even for entire sentences. Additionally, use Pleco. It's the world's biggest Chinese-English dictionary and it's all offline with a plethora of example sentences. You will love it. In tourist spots, be extremely suspicious in anyone approaching you AND speaking english. They 99 % try to rip you off. Most Chinese are lovable and inviting and hospitable indeed, but they will NEVER 1) approach YOU and NEVER 2) speak English. 5) Download the Beijing and Shanghai Metro app, such that 1) You always know where you are (GPS) and 2) know which line to take if you have no internet