Pay in China with a foreign card

Bind a foreign card inside Alipay or WeChat Pay while you still have reliable internet at home. On landing you may have no working data for a few minutes, and verification can occasionally fail or need a retry — you do not want to be solving that at a taxi rank.

You only need one of the two apps to get moving, but setting up both gives you a fallback if one rejects your card or a shop only accepts the other.

• Install Alipay and/or WeChat from your home app store before departure.
• Sign up with your passport, not a Chinese ID.
• Add and verify your card while you have a stable connection.

In the app, open the wallet or 'Bank Cards' area and add a card. Alipay and WeChat Pay accept major foreign networks (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, and some others). When asked for an ID type during verification, choose Passport — not 'Resident ID'.

Small everyday payments are usually free; larger single payments (commonly over about 200 CNY) may add a fee of roughly 3%. These thresholds and fees are set by the apps and can change.

• Choose Passport as the ID type, not Resident ID.
• Enter your name exactly as printed in your passport.
• Expect small payments to be fee-free and larger ones to add roughly 3%.

There are two payment modes and travelers often mix them up. Either you scan the merchant's printed QR code and type the amount, or you open 'Pay' to show your own payment QR for the cashier to scan. Small stalls usually scan your code; supermarkets often have you scan theirs.

If a code will not work, ask the cashier which method they use, or offer cash.

• Scan the merchant's code, or show your payment code — know which the shop uses.
• Open your payment QR from the app's home screen ('Pay' / 'Scan').

Carry some cash. Refusing cash is illegal in China, so it is a reliable fallback when an app or card is declined. A bank can give you a small-note 'change pack' if you need coins and small bills.

Keep a travel debit or credit card (for example Wise) for hotels, larger payments, and ATM withdrawals, where foreign cards are more widely accepted than at tiny shops.

• Cash is always legal tender — keep a modest amount.
• A travel card covers hotels, big payments, and ATMs.
• A Chinese bank card is rarely worth the difficulty for a short trip.

If one app rejects your card, try the other, or a different card. If a single payment is blocked, try a smaller amount or pay in cash. A few tiny vendors may still only accept balances tied to a Chinese account — cash clears those cases.

Only enter passport or card details inside the official Alipay or WeChat app, never on a link someone sends you. This page is guidance only; we never see or store your payment information.

• Try the other app or another card.
• Fall back to cash for blocked or tiny payments.
• Only enter details inside the official apps.