Guide Series | How to pay in Shanghai
The Shanghai Headquarters of the People’s Bank of China and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government have jointly produced a series of videos on “How to pay in Shanghai”, a payment service guide for foreigners coming to Shanghai, which are convenient for expatriates to understand and use for reference.
When you first arrive in China, one of the first challenges you will meet is navigating the country’s payment systems. In this guide series, we’ll give the information you need as international travelers to use China’s digital payment apps, use your overseas bank cards, and other payment methods to take care of the things you need while you are here.
Before your trip, download China’s widely used digital payment apps and register an account.
- To use Alipay, download the Alipay APP and register with your phone number from any country. Tap “add now” to add your bank card.
- To use the WeChat Pay digital wallet, download WeChat and activate WeChat Pay. Go to Me → Services → Wallet to link your cards.
- You can also link a UnionPay card issued in the Hong Kong SAR or Macao SAR to the UnionPay APP to make payments.
Just outside the arrival gates at Pudong airport in Shanghai, in both Terminals One and Two, there’s a help desk that can help you get digital payment apps such as Alipay or the UnionPay APP, set up with your overseas bank card for convenient use of digital payments here in the city.
At Shanghai’s two international airports, there are a total of 13 currency exchange counters. At these service counters, you can exchange currency from 44 different countries around the world. In Shanghai, there are more than 190 hotels, providing currency exchange services. You can also find any bank outlet with the mark below for currency exchange. Most ATMs at banks in China allow you to withdraw Chinese Yuan in cash using overseas cards such as Visa, MasterCard, and others. Some machines allow you to take out denominations of 10 and not just 100.
[mark for currency exchange]
If you only got 100 RMB notes and you want to get smaller denominations for use around the city, you can take a ticket at the bank and explain your needs at the window. You can exchange large-denomination bills into small ones. You can have 10-yuan, 20-yuan, or 5-yuan, even coins if you like it.
In the streets of Shanghai, you will notice another logo as below in many places. It signifies that the card reading machines in this establishment have been upgraded to accept international bank cards for payment.
For example, taxis with this logo can accept foreign cards and when you get inside, you can tap your bank card from overseas to pay your fare. If you only have cash, no problem. All taxis have enough change both coins and bills to make sure you get the correct amount.
In daily use, usually, there are two different ways to pay. You can either scan a vendor’s QR Code or let the vendor scan your payment code inside an app.
At the Metro stations around Shanghai, you can pay for a ticket in several different ways. And it includes domestic apps and cards as well as several kinds of overseas bank cards as well. You can also scan the transport QR Code inside the mobile payment apps to get onto the subway.
The guide has also uploaded a more detailed explanation, divided into four episodes:
EP1: Mobile Payments
EP2: Cash Payments
EP3: Currency Exchange
EP4: Bank Card Payments
You can find the videos via the website: https://wsb.sh.gov.cn
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
