Cash is king — for now: China signals it will slow transition to cashless society

With tourists struggling to access the two primary digital payment apps, Alipay and WeChat pay, Beijing has put measures in place to make cash payments easier

For 18 years, Liu Yau-li has been bringing tourists to China. In that time she’s seen the full evolution of China’s digital payment system. Twenty years ago, she says, everyone used cash. But today it’s not unusual to find places that can’t or won’t accept cash at all, particularly after the pandemic when much of the world grew wary of handling shared items.

If visitors want to enjoy convenient travel, she says, they’re better off downloading one of the major payment apps and hoping it works for them.

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