I've now watched this happen enough times that I stopped thinking of it
as bad luck.
Someone lands in China, gets to their hotel, and discovers that the
payment method they've used for fifteen years simply doesn't work here.
Not "works badly" — doesn't work. The card terminal doesn't recognize it,
the taxi driver waves them away, and the hotel front desk tells them
someone else will have to pay.
The frustrating part is that none of this is exotic. It's a short list of
setup steps, and almost all of them are easier before you land than after.
So here's the list.
1. Set up a payment app BEFORE you fly
This is the single highest-leverage thing on the list, and the reason is
boring: verification.
Alipay and WeChat Pay both want to send an SMS code to a phone number.
If you set it up while you still have your home SIM active, it takes ten
minutes. If you try to do it after you've swapped in a Chinese SIM and
your foreign number is unreachable, it becomes a project.
Alipay is the easier of the two to link a foreign card to. WeChat Pay is
worth adding anyway because a lot of small merchants and essentially all
person-to-person transfers run on it.
Do both, at home, on your own wifi.
2. "Contactless" here means QR codes, not tapping
This is the mental model that trips people up. In much of the world,
contactless means you hold your card near a reader.
In China, contactless means one of two things:
- You open your app, tap "Scan", and scan the QR code taped to the counter
- Or the merchant scans a code on your phone
Tapping a physical card is rare. I have watched people stand at a register
holding their card against the reader for a full thirty seconds, waiting
for something that isn't going to happen.
3. Yes, still carry cash — but only a little
Keep 300–500 RMB in your wallet.
You'll need it in three situations: small street stalls, the occasional
taxi, and those first few hours before your apps finish verifying. After
that first day, you will probably forget it's there. I used cash maybe
three times in my first month, and both times it was because my phone was
dead.
Which brings me to the real risk with mobile payments: it isn't fraud,
it's battery. Carry a power bank. This is not optional — a dead phone in
China means no money, no taxi, no map, and no way home.
4. Google Maps won't help you
This one surprises people who've traveled a lot.
Google Maps routing in China is unreliable to the point of being useless,
and it will happily send you to an entrance that closed four years ago.
Use Amap (Gaode) for routing and Didi for taxis — both work in English,
and both work inside Alipay as mini-programs, which saves you installing
and registering separately.
5. Trains: buy earlier than feels necessary
High-speed rail is genuinely excellent and genuinely confusing on the
first attempt.
The official app is 12306. Register with your passport — the same passport
you entered on, because the ticket is tied to it. Station names have
multiple spellings and the app may show you the one you don't recognize.
Check the station code, not just the name: Beijing has several major
stations and showing up at the wrong one is a very common and very
expensive mistake.
Arrive 45 minutes early for your first trip. Security plus finding your
gate in an unfamiliar station takes longer than you'd think.
6. Learn five phrases, not fifty
Every guide tells you to learn Chinese. Most people give up by phrase
twelve.
Learn these five and you'll get further than someone who memorized a
phrasebook:
- 谢谢 (xièxie) — thank you
- 多少钱 (duōshao qián) — how much
- 不要 (bú yào) — I don't want it (invaluable with persistent vendors)
- 在哪里 (zài nǎlǐ) — where is it
- 我不会说中文 (wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén) — I don't speak Chinese
That last one is the most useful sentence in the language. Saying it early
resets the whole interaction, and people switch to pointing, gestures, or
a translation app immediately.
What I'd actually tell someone landing tomorrow
Do the payment apps tonight. Carry a power bank. Install Amap and Didi.
Keep 400 RMB in cash. Arrive early for your first train.
Everything else you can figure out as you go.
I ended up writing all of this down as a checklist — payment setup, ride
hailing, trains, the phrases, and what to do when something goes wrong —
mostly because I got tired of typing the same six paragraphs into chat
every time someone asked. It's at chinaunstuck.com if it's
useful. The free preview covers the payment section, which is the one that
actually strands people.
What surprised you most in your first week? I'm still adding to the list.
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