Paying in China

Which wallet

Both Alipay and WeChat Pay accept foreign cards now, and both work almost everywhere: taxis, metro gates, street stalls, museums, vending machines. Pick Alipay if you only want one. The setup is faster, the English is better, and it doubles as a hub of mini-apps for trains, taxis, bikes and translation.

Set up Alipay

Do this at home, on Wi‑Fi, with your passport next to you. Card verification can take a few tries and the arrivals hall is a bad place to discover that.

1. 1Install Alipay from your app store and register with your home phone number.
2. 2Open Account, then Bank Cards, then Add, and enter a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners or Discover card.
3. 3Complete identity verification with a photo of your passport. Approval is usually quick but can take a day.
4. 4Make one small test payment when you land. Once it clears, you are set.

Set up WeChat Pay

Register a WeChat account first, which needs a phone number and, sometimes, a friend who already uses WeChat to verify you. Then open Me, Services, Wallet, Add Card, and add your card. Identity verification with your passport follows.

Fees and limits

Small payments are free to you. Above a per-transaction threshold the wallet adds a percentage fee on top of whatever your own bank charges for foreign transactions. There are also annual limits on total spending through a foreign card. The exact figures have changed more than once, so we keep them here rather than in the text.

Cash and cards

Cash still works, technically. Shops must accept it, and most do, but expect fumbling for change and occasional refusals at small stalls. Carry a few hundred yuan for the moments an app fails. ATMs at the big four banks accept foreign cards; look for the Bank of China, ICBC, China Construction Bank or Agricultural Bank.

Foreign credit cards tapped directly at a terminal work at international hotels, some department stores and airport shops. Almost nowhere else.

How paying actually works

Two directions. Either you show your payment code and the cashier scans it, or you scan their printed QR code and type the amount. Street stalls and taxis usually have the printed code; anything with a till scans you. Say sǎo wǒ (扫我, “scan me”) or wǒ sǎo (我扫, “I’ll scan”) and hold up the phone.

When it fails

• No signal at the till. Your payment code works offline for a short time, but scanning theirs does not. Get an eSIM with data.
• “Card not supported.” Try the other wallet, or pay cash.
• Locked out after too many attempts. Wait an hour, or use the other wallet.
• Refund needed. Refunds go back to the card, usually within a few days.