How do I pay for things in China without a Chinese bank account?

Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card

Both apps register with a foreign phone number and let you add an international card: Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club and Discover on either, American Express on WeChat Pay and only patchily on Alipay. Your card issuer has to approve the link, so do it at home where you can call the bank. Scanning a passport and a selfie in the app lifts the limits to the regulated ceiling of US$5,000 per payment and US$50,000 a year; unverified accounts stop at roughly US$2,000 in total.

The fee rule is the same in both: nothing on payments up to RMB 200, and 3% of the whole amount above that. WeChat Pay has waived the fee for new card-linkers for their first 90 days, up to RMB 1,000 a day; check the terms in the app, because the promotion has changed more than once. In practice most meals, metro rides and museum tickets fall under RMB 200 and cost you nothing extra.

Set up both if you can. Alipay carries the mini programs you will actually use, for metro codes, Didi, train tickets, maps and a built-in translator; WeChat is how people message you, and the official ticket mini programs of many sights live inside it. If you already use a wallet such as GCash, Kakao Pay, Touch 'n Go or Alipay HK, more than 30 of them now pay at Alipay QR codes on the mainland. Tencent launched a separate visitor app, TenPayGo, in September 2026, which takes cards from seven networks and Apple Pay; it is too new to recommend over the two main apps.

Where you still need cash or a card

• Cash: market stalls, village shops, temple donation boxes, some taxis and most deposits. Merchants may not refuse renminbi and the central bank has fined chains that did, but a stall holder with no change is still a stall holder with no change, so carry small notes.
• ATMs: Bank of China machines take Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Amex as well as UnionPay, with a cap of RMB 3,000 per withdrawal for foreign cards; your own bank sets the fee and the daily limit. Big-city banks are everywhere; withdraw before heading into the countryside.
• Cards at the counter: international hotel chains, department stores, airports and some restaurant chains take Visa and Mastercard. Many smaller terminals are UnionPay-only and will decline them. Counterfeit notes exist; change from a bank or a big shop is safest.

Metro, buses and taxis

• Every city's metro and buses take an Alipay or WeChat transport code; open the app's transport mini program in that city and it generates one.
• Beijing's metro has taken foreign Visa and Mastercard at the gates since September 2024, and Amex and JCB since June 2025; fares run RMB 3 to 5 and the Airport Express is a flat RMB 25. Shanghai's whole network took bank cards from June 2025.
• Apple Pay is reliable only with a UnionPay card loaded; with a foreign card it works at some gates and shops and fails at others, and never at a QR-only counter.
• Coming from Hong Kong, the Octopus tourist card doubles as a China T-Union transit card in more than 300 mainland cities, topped up in Hong Kong dollars.
• Didi (the ride-hailing app) takes foreign cards directly and runs in English; it also sits inside Alipay as a mini program.

Tax refunds, tipping and what things cost

Visitors get the departure tax refund on purchases of RMB 200 or more at one store on one day, and since 2025 more than 8,000 stores refund at the till; the paperwork went fully electronic in July 2026 and you have 28 days to leave with the goods. Tipping is not expected anywhere; upscale hotels add about 10% service. Bargain at markets, nowhere else.

For scale: a metro ride RMB 3 to 5, a bowl of noodles about RMB 15, a casual meal RMB 20 to 80 a head, a second-class seat on the Beijing to Shanghai high-speed train about RMB 553 (fares vary by train; the price on 12306 is the price).

Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau use their own currencies, the Hong Kong dollar and the pataca, and their own payment apps and transit cards; set up Alipay HK or an Octopus card there rather than expecting the mainland apps to cover everything.

Official sources

The rules above change; these are the pages to check before you travel, and the ones this guide was checked against on 2026-10-25.

• People's Daily: payment limits for foreign visitors raised US$5,000 per transaction, US$50,000 a year, March 2024
• Beijing government: inbound payment measures cards accepted, the RMB 200 fee-free rule, March 2026
• Tencent: inbound payment initiatives the 90-day fee waiver, May 2026
• Bank of China: foreign cards at ATMs networks accepted and the per-withdrawal cap
• Beijing Municipal Government: metro tap-to-ride with foreign cards Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB at the gates
• Shanghai government: payment convenience guideline the State Council order that cash must be accepted, March 2024
• State Taxation Administration: departure tax refund paperless refunds from July 2026
• Government of Canada: travel advice for China card acceptance and counterfeit notes

Related guides

• Internet and apps
  Will Google and my other apps work in China? Updated October 2026
• Trains and 12306
  How do I book train tickets in China with a foreign passport? Updated October 2026
• Visas and visa-free entry
  Can I visit China without a visa? Updated October 2026

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