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Payments

Payments

Alipay, the other code on the counter.

Alipay is the green QR code. For a lot of visitors it is the smoother of the two big wallets, and it is where city transit codes and DiDi tend to sit. It does not replace WeChat chats. Set it up beside WeChat Pay or TenPayGo, not instead of a way to message people.

AlipayWeChat Pay

Set it up before the flight

  1. Install Alipay from the App Store or Google Play. The publisher should be Alipay, not a lookalike with a similar icon.
  2. Register with a phone number you can still receive texts on after you land.
  3. Use the visitor path. It asks for a passport and then a card. The app sometimes also offers a prepaid tour card for people who would rather not link a bank card. Take that only if the app itself is offering it.
  4. Turn on the payment code and make a tiny purchase while your bank can still text you.
  5. If you want the metro on your phone, open the transit code for the city you are flying into and see whether it activates. A paper single-journey ticket still works when it does not.

What people use it for

Noodles, museums, convenience stores, and a large share of taxis booked in an app. Scan the shop’s code, or let the cashier scan yours. Read the amount before you confirm.

DiDi, the ride-hailing app, can be reached inside Alipay, which matters when the standalone app is awkward on a foreign number. City transit codes are the same idea: one QR instead of a queue for a token. Both still fail sometimes. Carry a little cash and know the Chinese name of the hotel.

Alipay is a poor place to discover that your card is blocked. Do the first payment at home. A hotel deposit is the wrong moment to learn the limit.

How it sits next to the other two

WeChat is the messenger and a lot of mini-program menus. Alipay is often the better payer and the home of transit codes. TenPayGo pays Weixin Pay merchants without a WeChat account, and it will not hail a car or open a WeChat menu. The sensible split is on the Payments page: Alipay plus one Weixin Pay method, and cash.

The company site is alipay.com. Limits and which foreign cards are accepted are printed in the app, and they move. Follow the app when this page is older than the screen.