How can I save and organise a multi-city place list before arriving in China?

At a glance

• Apple Maps supports personal Guides and sharing. Its current guide path is Maps → Your Guides → the add button; name the guide, optionally add a cover image, then confirm. Older iOS versions may place the Guides controls differently. [1]
• To add a place in Apple Maps, open the place card, use the More control and choose Add to Guides, then select the city guide. To share, open the guide and use its Share control. [1]
• Google Maps on Android gives You → New list, then a name and description. The list can be Private or Shared. [2]
• In Google Maps, You → the list → Share sends a viewing link; Invite collaborators allows shared editing. People viewing a collaborative list can see contributors’ names, profile pictures and who added or edited places and notes. [2]
• Google’s export path is takeout.google.com with Saved selected. An exported list is a backup of data; it is not a ready-made import into Apple Maps or AMap. [2]

What to do next

1. Before saving dozens of places, choose the map app you will actually use on the trip and create one test city list. Add a hotel, a station and a restaurant, then open the list on the travelling phone. Check your China connectivity setup now so that the map you planned with remains useful after arrival.
2. Name lists for the city and purpose: for example, Beijing — this trip and Chengdu — this trip. Keep optional distant ideas in a separate later list. Start each city with the booked hotel, the correct arrival station or airport and the departure station. Those anchors make the map useful even if the sightseeing plan changes.
3. On iPhone, open Maps → Your Guides and add a guide. Search for a place, open its card, then use More → Add to Guides to place it in the right city. Use the Share control inside the guide when travelling with someone else. Apple’s current instructions use icons for some controls, so look for add, More and Share if the text labels differ on your iOS version.
4. On Android with an existing Google Maps plan, use You → New list and save places from each place card’s Save control. Add a short note stating why the place matters: booked dinner, rainy-day option, or entrance beside the north gate. Keep the list private until you deliberately share it; choose viewing or collaboration access according to what your companions need.
5. Create a plain-text backup with the Chinese place name, full address, reason for visiting and any booking date. Save it on the phone and share it with companions. In China, search the Chinese name in your working local map, match the address and nearby landmarks, and save that result. Do not rely on copying numerical coordinates between different mapping systems.
6. Before each city transfer, prune the next city’s list to the places still relevant. Put your first arrival destination somewhere easy to find. Open the hotel address and station name once before leaving Wi-Fi, and keep a screenshot or saved note for showing a driver if mobile data fails.

If your situation is different

If everyone uses iPhones, a shared Apple Guide is a simple viewing list. Still keep booking times and confirmations in your trip notes: a map pin tells you where a place is, not whether admission has been reserved or which date the ticket covers.

If the group mixes Android and iPhone, share a plain-text itinerary alongside whichever map link each person can open. Use Chinese names and addresses as the common reference. Google’s collaboration feature is convenient for planning, but mainland network access and the companion’s account setup determine whether that link works at the moment you need it.

If you already have a large Google list, preserve it instead of manually rebuilding every idea. Export Saved data through Google Takeout if you want a retained copy, then move the few places you will actually visit into your working map. That is less work than chasing an unverified one-click transfer between apps.

If an English place name finds the wrong branch, search using the Chinese address from the hotel or venue’s own booking. Match the district and the arrival entrance. For large parks or stations, save the useful entrance as well as the place itself; a central pin can be far from the gate you need.

Common mistakes

• Putting every city in one favourites pile. Similar restaurant names and station branches become hard to distinguish; use a separate list for each city.
• Saving only an English name. Keep the Chinese name and full address so that another map or a driver can identify the same place.
• Treating a shared link as an offline backup. Retain the essential text or screenshots on the device, particularly the first hotel and next transport departure.
• Assuming a Google export can be imported directly into AMap. Use the supported export as a backup and transfer selected places through their names and addresses.

Quick questions