China Step by StepPractical intelligence

How foreign tourists pay in China

China’s official payment guide for foreign visitors lists five routes: a foreign bank card at a POS terminal, mobile payment (Alipay, Weixin Pay, UnionPay App), RMB cash, a domestic bank account, and e-CNY. For a short trip only three of them carry any weight: a wallet with an international card bound to it, a physical card in your pocket, and some cash. The guide itself promises nothing about any individual shop — two neighbouring shops can differ, one taking a foreign card and the other only a QR code.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

Registration and card binding both depend on an SMS code reaching your own number and, for WeChat, on uploading a passport copy that is then reviewed rather than accepted instantly. WeChat states outright that payments are restricted until real-name authentication is complete, and that restriction usually surfaces at the moment of the first payment attempt — at a counter, not at install time. Everything in this section is cheaper to do on home wi-fi with the passport on the desk.

How

  1. Do before arrivalInstall and register Weixin Pay with your own international number. WeChat’s help centre answers the question “Do I need a Chinese Mainland (+86) phone number?” with “No”, provided that number can receive SMS verification codes.5
  2. Do before arrivalInstall and register Alipay the same way. Note the difference in evidence: the official guide shows Alipay registration by phone number with a country selector that includes non-Chinese dialling codes, but Alipay has published no equivalent yes-or-no statement of its own. The +86 question is settled for WeChat and only inferred for Alipay.8
  3. Do before arrivalBind a physical card from at least two different issuers, and make a small test payment while you are still at home. Neither wallet publishes which issuers, virtual cards, prepaid cards or digital-bank cards actually bind, so this is the one thing you can only find out by trying — and trying is far cheaper before departure.10
  4. Do before arrivalComplete the passport identity details at home. The official guide says mobile payments below a certain amount are exempt from identity collection, but does not publish what that amount is, so you cannot plan around staying under it.4
  5. Do before arrivalSet your spending expectations against the lower of the two official ceilings. WeChat’s own help centre publishes CNY 6,500 per transaction, CNY 50,000 per month and CNY 65,000 per year for international cards.6
  6. Do before arrivalDo not spend time on the UnionPay App. The official guide’s own section on it says it supports overseas UnionPay cards issued in places such as Hong Kong and Macao, and says nothing about Visa or Mastercard issued elsewhere.11
  7. Can do in ChinaOn the ground, keep a physical card as the second path. A UnionPay card is accepted at every merchant POS terminal in mainland China; Visa and Mastercard are accepted where the network logo is displayed at the till, and the guide’s advice when no logo is shown is simply to ask the cashier.2
  8. Can do in ChinaKeep cash as the third path. PBC Announcement [2020] No.18 states that no entity or individual may refuse RMB cash, and names railways, buses and taxis specifically, alongside public service units and large merchants; small merchants may offer several payment methods but should accept cash.12

What can go wrong

You budgeted against the USD 5,000 per-transaction ceiling the central bank announced, and the hotel bill is declined.

What to do instead Two official numbers are live at the same time. In March 2024 the PBOC raised the per-transaction limit for foreign visitors’ mobile payments from USD 1,000 to USD 5,000 and the annual cumulative limit to USD 50,000; WeChat’s own help centre publishes CNY 6,500 per transaction, which is lower than even the old USD 1,000 figure. Budget against the lower number and pay large bills with the plastic card.36

A guide site told you Alipay charges 3% on anything above CNY 200, and you planned your spending around that.

What to do instead That fee is published by WeChat, not Alipay. WeChat’s help centre states in plain English that single transactions under CNY 200 are free of transaction fees and a 3% fee applies above CNY 200. No publicly retrievable Alipay page states any rate at all, so treat the Alipay figure as unknown and read the actual amount on each payment confirmation screen.79

Your card will not bind in either wallet, and you are already in China.

What to do instead Fall back to the other listed routes rather than one wallet: a physical card at a terminal showing your network’s logo, RMB cash, and — only if you are staying long enough for it to be worth a branch visit — a domestic bank account. The official guide treats these as parallel options, not as a ladder.1

The shop has no foreign-card terminal and you are holding a Visa card.

What to do instead The official promise is narrower than it sounds: UnionPay cards work at all mainland POS terminals, while Visa and Mastercard work where the logo is displayed. Ask the cashier, then switch to a wallet QR code or cash.2

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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