Yes, and it now works with a Malaysian or Singaporean card. Here is the setup you should do before you fly, and what to do when it fails.
For years the standard advice was that China was effectively closed to foreign payment apps and you needed cash. That is out of date. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard directly, tied to your passport rather than to a Chinese bank account.
The practical consequence: you can travel China almost entirely cashless, the same way locals do, without opening a Chinese bank account or buying a Chinese SIM.
Do this at home, on reliable wifi, a few days before departure. It takes about ten minutes and it is far easier than doing it in an arrivals hall while a driver waits.
Alipay: download the app, register with your own mobile number, then add your card under the payment settings and complete identity verification with your passport. The app will prompt you through it in English.
WeChat Pay: register WeChat, then go to Services → Wallet and add the same card. Verification follows the same passport process. Worth having both, because a handful of small vendors take one and not the other.
Two directions, and both are simple. Either you scan the merchant’s QR code — the standard for shops, restaurants, taxis and market stalls — or you show your own code for them to scan, which is common at supermarkets and chain stores.
Taxis, metro gates in most cities, museum tickets, temple donation boxes and even street vendors all work this way. Cash is still legal tender and accepted, but small vendors often do not keep change, so relying on it is impractical.
Small transactions usually carry no fee. Above a threshold, the card network applies a percentage charge, typically low single digits. Check your own bank’s foreign transaction fee as well — that is often the bigger number.
The real downsides are practical: verification sometimes fails on first attempt for certain banks, some accounts get flagged for security review, and if your phone dies you have no way to pay. That last one is why we suggest carrying a few hundred yuan in cash as backup, and why our guests can always ask their guide to pay and settle afterwards.
About two weeks before departure we send a short illustrated setup guide for both apps, and we are on WhatsApp while you do it. On arrival your guide confirms both are working and helps with anything that did not verify. It is a small thing, but being stranded without payment capability in a cashless country is one of the most common ways an independent China trip goes wrong in the first 24 hours.
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and roughly what you want to see. Within 24 hours a China-based planner sends you a day-by-day itinerary with everything itemised — free, and with nothing to pay until you approve it.
Monday–Sunday, 09:00–21:00 Beijing time (UTC+8)
Free written itinerary within 24 hours