How to Pay in China: Alipay, WeChat Pay & TenPayGo for Foreigners

Reviewed 2026-09-03. Payment provider terms and fees change — check the apps before you travel.

The situation on the ground

China is nearly cashless: QR codes pay for street food, metro tickets, taxis, and even temple entrance fees. But the cards in your wallet don’t help much:

• Visa/Mastercard are accepted at hotels and larger stores, but often rejected at small shops and restaurants.
• Apple Pay / Google Pay tap-to-pay is not the norm offline. The terminal that takes a QR code usually won’t take your phone wallet.
• Cash still works and is the right emergency backup, but some vendors struggle with change.

The fix is to link your existing foreign card to a Chinese payment app before you land.

Set up Alipay first

1. Download Alipay and sign up with your phone number.
2. Add your Visa or Mastercard (Amex works but is less consistent).
3. Verify your identity with your passport when prompted.
4. Pay by showing your QR code or scanning the merchant’s code.

Alipay is accepted almost everywhere and is the most foreigner-friendly of the apps.

Add WeChat Pay as backup

WeChat Pay is the other half of the duopoly, and some vendors only take WeChat. The setup is similar: sign up, add your foreign card, verify with your passport. Keep both apps.

TenPayGo: built for foreign travelers

TenPayGo is Tencent’s newer product aimed specifically at foreign visitors. It bridges your familiar Visa/Mastercard to offline WeChat Pay, so you can tap into WeChat’s enormous merchant network without a Chinese bank account. If you’re mostly carrying Visa/Mastercard, TenPayGo is worth setting up alongside Alipay.

What to do before your flight

1. Install Alipay and WeChat Pay (and TenPayGo if available in your region).
2. Link your Visa/Mastercard and complete passport verification — do this at home, because the apps sometimes need SMS codes.
3. Test a small top-up or check that your card shows as verified.
4. Withdraw or bring ¥200–500 in cash as a fallback.

On the ground

• The merchant scans your QR, or you scan theirs. Either way, the app pays with your linked card.
• Small transaction fees can apply to foreign cards after a threshold — usually a few percent.
• If a payment fails, try the other app before reaching for cash.

Bottom line

Spend 20 minutes setting up Alipay + WeChat Pay (+ TenPayGo) before you fly, and paying in China stops being a problem. Keep a little cash for the rare holdout.