Paying in China

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.

In the app, a few minutes

Inside WeChat, a few more steps

Trains, taxis, bikes, translation

Messaging hosts and locals

If you already use WeChat

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.

Once it works, Alipay also books taxis for you; Taxis and DiDi shows how.

If verification fails

Some banks block the first charge as suspicious. If it fails twice, call your bank, tell them you are travelling to China, and try again. Prepaid and virtual cards are often refused.

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.

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.

Annual limitUS$50,000

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.

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 nǐ sǎo wǒ (你扫我, “you scan my code”) or wǒ sǎo nǐ (我扫你, “I’ll scan your code”) and hold up the phone.

1. Open your wallet’s payment code.

2. Show your screen to the cashier.

3. Check the payment confirmation.

1. Open Scan and scan the seller’s code.

2. Check the recipient and enter the amount.

3. Confirm, then show the successful payment.

Open Scan in WeChat or Alipay and try the matching code below. Check that the recipient shown in the app matches the name under the code.

These are real personal collection codes , not a payment sandbox. Both belong to the person who builds and runs this site. Scanning is free and you can stop before confirming, which is all you need to practise. If you don’t mind, though, sending a small amount for real is the best test that your linked card works, and it goes towards keeping the site running. A successful scan on its own does not prove your card will work at a shop till.

On the same phone? Take a screenshot and select it from the album option in your wallet’s scanner.

• ✓No signal at the till. Your payment code works offline for a short time, but scanning theirs does not. Get an eSIM with data (see [Staying online](/guides/staying-online)).
• ✓“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.

Rules and apps change. Get one email when this guide is re-checked or updated, nothing else.

• ✓2026-09 — First published.