China enhances cashless payment services to support surge in foreign travelers

China is taking steps to help foreign visitors make full use of convenient payment options following a tourism boom in the first half of 2024, with greater efforts being made to ensure international travelers have access to more seamless financial services and connectivity across the country.

The number of foreign tourists visiting China increased by more than 150 percent in the first half of this year, buoyed by the introduction of a series of visa-free policies for numerous countries, with over 14.6 million foreign arrivals recorded at Chinese ports of entry.

Many of those arriving are enjoying the increasingly convenient payment options available in China, where mobile payments have become almost as natural as breathing. With the highest mobile payment penetration rate globally, China offers a seamless payment experience that can be surprising to many newcomers who are more used to pulling out cash and cards.

In the popular southwestern city of Chengdu, new payment options have made it easier for international guests to navigate transactions. For example, a one-stop payment service center for foreign visitors has been established at the city's Tianfu Airport, offering services such as cash exchange, bank card accounts, and Chinese SIM cards.

On the bustling streets of Chengdu, foreign visitors shared their experience of payments in China, with some saying they are sticking to using cash, while others are embracing paying on the leading apps of WeChat and Alipay.

"We pay for everything with Alipay and WeChat Pay. I love it, we love it," said a traveler.

"[I pay] through WeChat. Carrying cash all of this is like, as the Chinese said, it's 'too troublesome'," another tourist noted.

"[If] you want to buy food, you want to pay your electricity bills, water bills, you want to do banking transactions, everything is in one place," explained another foreigner, highlighting the convenience of China’s ubiquitous mobile payment applications.

In March, the People's Bank of China released a payment guide offering text and pictorial instructions on using bank cards, cash, mobile payments, and the digital yuan, or e-CNY, to help foreigners overcome "payment difficulties" in China.

Previously, foreign card payments could prove complicated at the point of sale, with multiple parties such as overseas card issuers, international card groups, and domestic payment companies all involved. However, financial services firm UnionPay International has been instrumental in streamlining this process, enhancing the experience for global guests.

"From my perspective, the fundamental reason for a 'smooth' cross-border payment is the broader use of UnionPay products," said Larry Wang, chief executive officer of UnionPay International.

"Overseas UnionPay cardholders, with their UnionPay card or e-wallet they applied for and used at home, use them the same after coming to China, without downloading or switching to other apps. As an international card organization, UnionPay cooperates with domestic and foreign commercial banks, acquirers and other parties to bridge the differences in payment habits between different countries, so as to ensure smooth foreign card payment," Wang explained.

Currently, more than 240 million UnionPay cards have been issued in 81 countries and regions, and about 200 UnionPay cooperative wallets have been launched in 36 countries and regions.

China's quest to become a cashless society and the work to offer greater convenience to international travelers is being spearheaded by the country's leading online payment provider Alipay, whose headquarters is based the eastern China city of Hangzhou, which last year hosted the 19th Asian Games. This event gave the company the first chance to test out its more foreign-friendly payment practices.

"From last year's Asian Games, under the guidance and support of regulators, we supported international travelers to link overseas cards, and pay authentication fee for a small amount of payment. In the past, foreigners needed to provide name, nationality, occupation and other personal information, when they attached their bank cards to Chinese payment platforms. The process was complicated. We also recently launched Alipay in 16 languages, helping international visitors to travel across the country with just a phone. In fact, in the past five years, we have been working on improving payment convenience for international travelers to China," said Katelyn Ko, senior product manager for Alipay's dedicated Payment for International Visitors division.

"This morning we just had a training session with tour guides in Hangzhou and we learned lots of industry experiences from them, and their sharing actually were quite impressive. For example, international tourists from different countries and regions, they have different payment habits. We are very happy to learn from them that the younger generation travelers enjoy mobile payment," added Bell Wang, head of international communications at Alipay.

Data from the People's Bank of China shows that mobile payment usage among foreign travelers is rising rapidly as these services gain traction among visitors.

In the first half of 2024, over 5 million inbound visitors used mobile payments, a fourfold increase from the previous year, with more than 90 million transactions amounting to over 14 billion yuan (near 2 billion U.S. dollars). Payment institutions are also continuing to expand their networks and innovate.

"We also continue to link the QR code network at home and abroad following the expansion of e-wallet overseas. UnionPay International has partnered with the international QR code networks of six countries, including Singapore, South Korea, and Sri Lanka," Larry Wang of UnionPay International noted.

China enhances cashless payment services to support surge in foreign travelers

China will firmly fight against economic hegemony, advocate justice, and stick to the right path against the sweeping tariffs by the United States, and will open ever wider to the world no matter how the international situation changes, according to a commentary of The Real Point published on Sunday.

An edited English version of the commentary is as follows:

In response to the U.S. imposition of "reciprocal tariffs" on all trading partners, China issued the Chinese Governments Position on Opposing U.S. Abuse of Tariffs on Saturday, after taking a series of countermeasures.

The thousand-word document pointed out that the United States uses tariffs as a weapon to exert extreme pressure and pursue its own selfish interests, which is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying.

The paper also emphasized that China does not provoke trouble but is not afraid of trouble, and will continue to implement a high-level trade and investment liberalization and facilitation policy to share development opportunities and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results with countries around the world.

Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told The Real Point that this position paper demonstrates China's high sense of responsibility to uphold fairness and justice without fear of power politics, which will be conducive to the efforts of the international community to pool together resultant forces and continue promoting economic globalization.

Meanwhile, China's determination to promote high-level opening-up has boosted the courage and confidence of other countries to fight against unilateral bullying and injected certainty into a changing and turbulent world, according to Li.

There are no winners in a trade war and there is no way out for protectionism. When the U.S. complains that the whole world is taking advantage of it, it deliberately distorts a fact that the U.S. is the biggest beneficiary of the world's free trade system since the end of World War II.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 1979, the United States has long been reaping substantial profits from its economic and trade ties with the country. More than 70,000 American companies have invested and started businesses in China, and exports to China supported 930,000 jobs in the United States, which maintained a huge surplus in service trade in particular.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2023, the United States exported 46.72 billion U.S. dollars in services to China, and had a trade surplus of 26.57 billion U.S. dollars in services with China.

The Economist criticized the current U.S. trade policy for ignoring the unprecedented prosperity that globalization has brought to the United States.

The U.S. arbitrarily uses tariffs to blackmail other countries at will, attempting to sacrifice the interests of the whole world for U.S. hegemony. But any exertion of pressure and intimidation are useless to China.

This year, in the face of the continuous tariffs imposed by the United States, China has introduced a series of precise and effective measures, as one of the first countries taking countermeasures. The country's move is not only to safeguard its own sovereignty, security and development interests, but also to defend the multilateral trading system and international trade rules.

The world is not a jungle society, and everything must be fair and just. Development is a universal right of all countries in the world, not an exclusive right of a few countries.

The United States has unilaterally imposed tariffs on all its trading partners, violating the WTO's Most-Favored-Nation treatment principle and attempting to subvert the existing international economic and trade order. Its nature is to pursue "America first" and "America special" and deprive other countries of their legitimate right to development.

Over the past days, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Canada and other countries have been criticizing the United States.

China's position paper clearly states that "international affairs should be addressed through consultation, and the future of the world should be decided by all countries", reflecting the common aspirations of the international community and China's consistent position of speaking and doing fair things.

While the United States continues to build "high walls around a small yard" and erect tariff barriers, China is constantly "opening its doors" and "building bridges and roads" to bring more opportunities to the world.

On March 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with representatives of the international business community in Beijing and reiterated that China is determined to promote reform and opening up, China's door will only open wider, and China's policy of welcoming foreign investment has not changed and will not change.

The China Development Forum 2025, held in Beijing from March 23 to 24, attracted more than 80 representatives of multinational companies, among which American companies made up the largest proportion, reaching about one-third.

A report released by global management consulting firm Kearney shows that in the ranking of foreign direct investment confidence in the next three years, China has jumped from 7th to 3rd, and ranked first in the special ranking of emerging markets.

At a time when the world is in turmoil and the United States is abusively imposing tariffs, China's position paper sends a strong message to the world about maintaining the multilateral trading system and promoting economic globalization.

The world wants justice, not hegemony. This is China's clear declaration and the common voice of the international community.

China opposes hegemony, upholds right path against sweeping U.S. tariffs: commentary