How to Pay in China: Alipay, WeChat Pay and Cash

Paying in China is not a question of whether your card works. It is a question of which places accept it, and the answer changes from one street to the next.

The three routes that matter are Alipay, WeChat Pay and cash. The first one solves the traveller’s problem, the second is built for a banking system that is not yours, and the third is the fallback you should never leave behind.

Key Takeaways

• Alipay is the route that works for a visitor: you link a Visa or Mastercard and the exchange rate is on screen before you confirm.
• WeChat Pay runs on Chinese bank accounts, so it is a secondary route for a trip rather than the main one.
• Cash is not optional. Many small vendors and local restaurants do not accept foreign cards.
• Alipay’s verification SMS cannot reach a data-only eSIM. Use your physical SIM with roaming enabled, or any number that receives international SMS.
• Didi takes an international number, a metro trip costs ¥3 to ¥10, and the Huangpu ferry in Shanghai costs ¥2.
• Without data there is no Alipay, no Didi and no map, so the plan has to be working from the first minute.

What are the ways to pay in China?

Each of the three routes solves a different part of the trip, and mixing them is what makes a day in China run smoothly.

• Alipay is the real route for the traveller. You link a Visa or Mastercard and pay with it. The exchange rate is shown before you confirm each payment, so you can see what the charge costs in your own currency before you accept it.
• WeChat Pay is built into WeChat and designed around Chinese bank accounts. It works well for locals and for anyone who has a Chinese account, but for a visitor with a foreign card its role is secondary.
• Cash is the fallback you cannot leave behind. Many small vendors and local restaurants do not accept foreign credit cards, and that includes bazaars, street food stalls and the entrance to smaller sites.

Method	What it needs	Where it works
Alipay	A Visa or Mastercard linked to the app	Shops, restaurants, transport, ticket counters
WeChat Pay	A Chinese bank account	Everything locals use it for
Cash	Yuan in your hand	Markets, street stalls, small vendors

The combination that works in practice is Alipay for everything that takes an app, and cash for everything that does not. Getting yuan out of an ATM is not the hard part. The hard part is that not every place accepts a card, and you are out of luck if you are not carrying yuan.

How do you set up Alipay before you travel?

This is where the first thirty minutes of a trip go missing. The app is downloaded, the registration is completed with a phone number, the card is linked and the number is confirmed. All of it needs a connection, and there is one technical detail worth knowing before you fly.

The verification SMS cannot reach the eSIM, because our eSIMs are data only: they have no number of their own and cannot receive messages. The number you use for the registration is the one on your physical SIM, with roaming enabled so the message gets through, or any other number that receives international SMS.

The practical recommendation is to complete the registration before you travel, with the eSIM already installed on the phone, and then to check that the card shows up inside the app. You can do that on whatever connection you have at home. Once you land, you open Alipay and you pay.

Two practical notes. Our China plans start counting their days when the phone first connects to a network in China, so installing the eSIM before the flight costs you nothing in validity. And the app shows the conversion before every payment, so you can compare it at the moment instead of accepting it blind. The rate on screen is not always the rate your bank would have given you, and seeing it is the difference between knowing what you are paying and finding out later.

For local communication, WeChat. Our eSIMs carry no number and no SMS, so the messaging apps are the way people reach each other on the ground.

How do you use Didi to get around?

Transport is where the gap between an app and a traditional taxi shows up in the price. Didi, the local ride-hailing app, registers with an international number and works without a Chinese account: you request the car, the price is shown before you get in, and you pay inside the app. Download it before you arrive, because it is the easiest way to get a car without speaking Chinese.

In cities with a metro, a trip costs ¥3 to ¥10, and Beijing has more than 500 stations, with lines that reach the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. You pay with Alipay inside the app or at the station machines.

Two warnings about the ground. Avoid rush hour, from 7 to 9 in the morning and from 5 to 7 in the afternoon, when lines 1, 4, 10 and 13 get extremely crowded. And in Beijing, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is the better one: it has cable cars and is far less crowded than Badaling.

In Shanghai, the ferry across the Huangpu river costs ¥2 and gives you the best view of the Pudong skyline for very little.

Do I still need cash in China?

The practical rule is simple: cash is not optional. Bazaars, street food stalls and many small places do not take a card, and the rate you are offered there is not the rate your bank would have given you. Bring enough yuan for daily spending and a reserve for whatever comes up.

That is why the packing list includes cash even when the rest of the plan is digital, and why you split it: an amount for the day, and a reserve in a separate place for what comes up.

Which eSIM should you pick for China?

For this trip, what matters is that the data works from the first minute. Without a connection there is no Alipay to register, no Didi to call and no map to open, and the payment apps are exactly the part of the trip that cannot wait for a hotel Wi-Fi.

Our China plans attach to China Mobile and China Unicom, and they include Breakout IP: HK, a fixed IP in Hong Kong that opens Google, WhatsApp and Instagram without installing a separate VPN. It is not a VPN and it does not make you anonymous.

Plan	Data	Validity	Price
1 GB	1 GB	7 days	$3.99
3 GB	3 GB	15 days	$6.99
5 GB	5 GB	30 days	$8.99
10 GB	10 GB	30 days	$13.99
20 GB	20 GB	30 days	$23.99
50 GB	50 GB	30 days	$50.99
Unlimited	3 GB per day at full speed, then unlimited at 1 Mbps	3 days	$8.99
Unlimited	3 GB per day at full speed, then unlimited at 1 Mbps	10 days	$26.99
Unlimited	3 GB per day at full speed, then unlimited at 1 Mbps	30 days	$67.99

Start with the China destination page, which carries the full live catalogue. If your trip stays inside a single city, look at the plans for Beijing or Shanghai, which use the same price scale with coverage limited to that city.

Before you buy, confirm that your exact model and variant support eSIM on the compatible phones page. In China that check comes before everything else, because many regional variants sold in the mainland market ship without eSIM support even when the same model name has it in other regions, and a phone without eSIM support cannot be sorted out at the airport.