Almost every transaction in China now happens by scanning a code. Not most — almost every. Metro gates, noodle shops, temple ticket offices, the woman selling plums at a trailhead, the deposit on a bicycle. A traveller who has set up mobile payment before landing moves through the country at the same speed as everyone else. One who has not spends the first two days asking whether they take cash.
The good news is that this is now a solved problem for visitors. It takes about twenty minutes, at home, before you go.
Set it up before you fly.
Alipay and WeChat Pay both accept international cards, and neither requires a Chinese bank account or a Chinese phone number. You register with your own mobile number, verify with a passport photo upload, and add a Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club or Discover card. UnionPay works too, and it is worth knowing why that matters — more on that below.
Install both. They are near-identical in coverage but not identical in behaviour: a small shop may display only one of the two codes, and one app's limits may refuse a payment the other accepts. The second app is the cheapest insurance you will buy for this trip.
What the card costs.
Both platforms waive their fee on payments of ¥200 or less and charge around 3% above that. The detail that surprises people: the percentage is usually applied to the whole amount, not just the portion above the threshold, so a ¥400 payment can cost more than a ¥200 payment plus a ¥200 payment.
Your own card's currency conversion sits on top of that. A UnionPay card — common with banks in Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of Southeast Asia — clears in yuan directly and avoids the double conversion, which is the single cheapest change most travellers can make to their setup. WeChat has also run first-time binding promotions that waive the fee for a period; check the in-app notice rather than assuming, since these change.
The ceilings.
There are two layers of limit, and it is worth knowing which one you have hit. The central bank sets the outer ceiling for foreign-card payments inside Chinese apps at around US$5,000 per transaction and US$50,000 per year. WeChat Pay publishes its own, lower, RMB caps on top of that — in the region of a few thousand yuan per payment — which is the limit that actually stops a large hotel bill or a liveaboard deposit.
The practical consequence is simple: for anything expensive, use Alipay rather than WeChat, or split the payment. And check the limit page inside the app before you are standing at a counter with a queue behind you.
One more restriction that catches people out: with a foreign card you can pay merchants, but you cannot send money to a person or send a red packet. If a guide asks you to transfer cash for a permit fee, that transfer will fail — use a card machine, cash, or have the cost built into the invoice.
Where cash still wins.
Cash is not dead, it is just no longer the default. Carry ¥300 to ¥500 in mixed notes, and keep the small ones separate. It is still the fastest way to pay at a rural guesthouse, a roadside stall, a temple donation box, or a taxi whose driver cannot log into the app. Some small vendors also cannot accept foreign-card-funded payments at all, and will tell you so by pointing at the code and shrugging.
ATMs at Bank of China and ICBC accept foreign cards and dispense around ¥3,000 per withdrawal; tell your bank you are travelling so the first attempt is not declined as fraud. And break at least one ¥100 note before you leave the city — smaller places often cannot change one.
Data is the other half.
Two workable approaches. A local SIM needs passport registration, is cheap, and gives you a Chinese number — but the network it connects to blocks many of the services you use at home, so your maps, mail and messaging may not load. An international eSIM or your home plan on roaming keeps your usual apps working and needs no registration, at a higher price.
Decide before you fly rather than at the airport, because some options have to be installed while you still have reliable downloads. Then make the phone useful offline: download a translation pack, save the Chinese characters for your hotel and your trailhead, and install Amap, which now has an English mode and handles walking and driving directions far better than foreign map apps inside China.
Five small things.
- A charged power bank. Everything above depends on a phone with battery. Check your airline's rules on carrying one.
- Your hotel name in Chinese. A screenshot is enough, and it ends most taxi conversations in ten seconds.
- Tissue. Public toilets frequently have none, and the dispenser outside the door is sometimes the only place to get any.
- Water discipline. Do not drink the tap; bottled or boiled water is universal and cheap, and restaurants will fill a flask with hot water if you ask.
- No tipping. It is not expected in restaurants, taxis or hotels, and offering it can cause mild confusion rather than pleasure.
One last item that has nothing to do with money: hotels in China must register foreign guests, and a minority of budget properties are not licensed to. If you are booking your own first and last nights, confirm they accept foreign passports — it is the one administrative detail that can strand a traveller at 11 pm.
Fees, ceilings and app features checked 3 November 2026 against published platform and central-bank guidance. These change more often than any other detail in this guide — the in-app limit page is the authority on the day.
We can put the practical setup into your trip notes.
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