Here’s a shocking confession for you: I have not carried around my wallet when I go out and about in Shenzhen, China for nearly a year now.
But why? What happened to me? Was I robbed at knifepoint by a pack of rabid preschoolers? Was I chased down the street by a man who wanted to make counterfeit Canadian IDs? Did I just forget to take my wallet with me every time I stepped outside for 300 days straight?
Answer: none of the above! Don’t worry loyal readers, you’ll be glad to know that I’m totally safe and have all my internal organs intact. So really, why don’t I carry around my wallet in China anymore?
The answer: cash is now OBSOLETE in China.
Wait… what?
Almost nobody uses cash anymore
Okay, I’m exaggerating a little bit here. But to be honest, if you live in a major city (which about half of the Chinese population does) you absolutely (and this I am not exaggerating) DO NOT need to carry around or bring cash with you anywhere. Chinese daily life is virtually cashless, as every transaction, from taking the metro to work, to buying lunch, to picking up movie tickets you bought online, to buying groceries, to paying your cab fare, can be completed without handing over cash or swiping a card.
That’s right. The question “cash or card?” has met its demise in China.
So, how is this all possible? Two things: WeChat and Alipay.
WeChat and Alipay: the two big players in the mobile payment game
If you’ve never heard of WeChat or Alipay, they are essentially two apps that contain digital wallets in which you can store cash or upload your bank card to use for mobile payment. You can then pay at almost any establishment by either presenting your payment bar code found in the app and letting the cashier scan it, or by scanning a QR code and inputting an amount to pay.
Nearly every shop or establishment will give you the option of using the WeChat or Alipay mobile payment platforms. If the establishment doesn’t have a barcode scanner, they will likely hang a QR code somewhere you can easily scan for you to complete your payment. Even grocers at Chinese wet markets will hang QR codes above their fresh fruits and vegetables for eager shoppers to hand over digital currency.
Mobile payment in China has become so ubiquitous now that some smaller places will refuse to take cash, fearing they won’t have enough change to give you. For many places, QR codes and mobile payment are a quick and convenient way of doing business transactions requiring minimal effort, thus accelerating the trend toward China becoming a cashless society and encouraging more small businesses to open as they don’t need to set up their own end-to-end payment system; WeChat and Alipay have solved that problem for them.
How to link your bank cards to WeChat and Alipay
Before you can start paying, you’ll need to either have money in your digital wallet, or you can link your bank cards to your WeChat or Alipay accounts.
Linking a bank card to WeChat:
Download the WeChat app on your phone. Tap the “Me” tab at the bottom of the WeChat interface and then tap “Wallet” to access your WeChat wallet.
Tap “Cards” and then “Add a Card” to start adding cards.
The next interface will look like this:
Now, the MOST important thing you need to keep in mind is, when inputting your name, it must be the EXACT same name you used when you set up your bank account in China and got your card. If your name does not match, you will need to go to the bank and ask them for your account info which is always annoying. In my case, the name in my account lists my surname first, then my first name, because surnames always go first in the Chinese language. However, this will vary from bank to bank when foreigners open bank accounts as my previous bank put my first name first. Make sure you keep any and all documents your bank provides you as you will definitely need them in the future!
A cool thing about linking your card on WeChat is that you can scan your bank card to automatically input your bank card number! Tap the camera button in the Card No. space (see screenshot above) and you can use WeChat to align your card within a scan frame. It may take a few seconds, but afterwards your bank account number will show up just like that! You can even edit it by tapping on the numbers if it somehow didn’t register it properly. Always good to double check.
After, you’ll need to enter some profile information and the phone number you registered with the bank. Tap Next to start finishing off the process and go out and use WeChat to buy some mosquito repellent!
Linking a bank card to Alipay:
Alipay follows a similar process as WeChat does. After downloading the Alipay app and setting up an account, go to “Me” at the bottom-right of the home screen and tap “Bank Cards”.
In the Bank Cards interface, tap the + in the upper-right hand corner to start adding a bank card. Remember that the name you use MUST be the one registered with your bank account. Fill out your profile information and then tap “Agree and Bind Card”. It’s as simple as that.
How to pay with WeChat and Alipay
The two functions on WeChat and Alipay that make everything happen are “Scan” and “Money” (on WeChat) and “Scan” and “Pay” (on Alipay). With the Scan function, you can scan pretty much any QR code with your phone and proceed to pay for your things.
When you select “Pay” or “Money”, the app will take you to your very own QR code and barcode which you then present to the cashier or to a scanner machine to scan for payment. The whole process, if you’re quick on the draw, can take as little as five seconds! No cash or cards to fumble with, no fear of getting shortchanged, just scan and go! And with frequent long lineups in China, this is a huge timesaver.
In addition to stores and markets, you can also use WeChat and Alipay mobile payment to take public transportation. All you need to do is download a “mini-program” for your city’s metro system and every time you open the mini-program you will get your own personal QR code, which you then scan at the special QR code fare gates. And if you’re a bit more old-school and like using metro cards, you can at least top it up at a card machine by paying with your phone.
The “Scan” function is so versatile, companies across China have incorporated QR codes into many of their products and services. Take Mobike, one of China’s largest dockless bike-share companies. To ride a bike, all you need to do is open the app or mini-program and scan the QR code on the bike to unlock it.
Other cool things you can do with QR codes and mobile payments are play claw machines, belt out tunes in a karaoke booth, and subscribe to news feeds on WeChat. You can also see QR codes smack in the middle of bus advertisements! Just wait for the bus to stop before you start scanning it, you know, just to be safe.
Why is China so in love with mobile payments?
The mobile payment craze has made daily life in China more convenient that ever. Why has China fully embraced mobile payments, while other countries are still trying to get even Apply Pay off the ground? Why is the US so far behind when it’s supposedly the most technologically-advanced nation on earth?
There are a few reasons for this. Most developed countries went through the phase of cash, then plastic, and are just now transitioning to mobile payment. China, however, is an entirely different case. China developed so fast in the last thirty-odd years that they never really had a phase where bank cards and credit cards became popular and widespread. Then, in the past few years, the “Big Two” companies WeChat and Alipay came along offering the same basic service you would get through bank cards, namely, cashless payment. All one has to do is link their existing bank card to the app (in some cases, no bank card is needed) and you can pay for almost anything on your smartphones.
Speaking of smartphones, another reason why mobile payment has been so successful in China is the fact that EVERYBODY has a smartphone! Daily life in China runs on the power of smartphones, which has led to China becoming the second-most smartphone obsessed country in the world (Brazil is first if you were wondering, and I know you were). Everyone and their grandma, literally, has a smartphone. In China, that’s hundreds of millions of potential users out there who already have an opportunity to spend their money frivolously and are just waiting to be exploited.
But the main reason why mobile payments have exploded in popularity since 2013 is simply this: CONVENIENCE! Seriously, how cool and easy is it to just have your smartphone take care of every transaction in your daily life? Chinese people are big on convenience and have thus shunned traditional banks which they view as a bastion of inconvenience and long wait times.
Will the West ever become a cashless society?
Now here’s the million dollar question: why haven’t we in the West embraced mobile payments? As the ever-optimist, I believe that there is a mobile payment trend slowly picking up steam in the West at the moment, as Apple Pay and Venmo continue to penetrate Western markets. However, I predict it will not take off anywhere near as fast as it did in China. For some reason, we in the West have a deep-seated mistrust of technology and its somewhat unsettling ability to gather information about us, which is a concern that Chinese people don’t really share. To them, the bottom line is, “how fast can I pay for this cup of milk tea”, not “oh no, now the government is going to find out I eat Frosted Flakes three times a day.”
Chinese people have embraced technology full on, and thus have reaped the rewards of the convenience that it brings. After all, isn’t that what technology is supposed to do: make our lives convenient? As for myself, I must admit that I and a whole slew of my foreign friends in China have embraced this Chinese lifestyle trend wholeheartedly, and I don’t think I’ll be reverting back to my crusty leather money pouch any time in the near future…or ever.
Happy scanning!