Any c++ string library like QString?

I'm working on a windows program using MFC, currently I use std::string and std::wstring, the problems are I have to convert them from each other and handle encoding everywhere.

The QString API looks very decent, it can handle those problems just in one class, so my questions are:

1. Can I use only QString without depending on whole QT library?
2. Is there alternatives (A class handling both char and wchar, encoding, etc.)