Paying for things in China as a foreign visitor
China is close to cashless, and the two apps that replaced cash now take foreign cards. Set them up before you fly and the week is frictionless; arrive without them and simple things get complicated.
A buying trip involves two completely different kinds of payment: the small ones — taxis, lunch, a sample, a hotel — and the large one, the deposit that goes to a factory. They work nothing alike, and the mistake is assuming the second is like the first.
Here is what to arrange before you get on the plane.
The two apps, and setting them up
Alipay and WeChat Pay are how China pays for everything. Both now accept international Visa and Mastercard for foreign visitors: install the app, register with your phone number, add your passport details and link your card. Do this at home, on your own network, days before you travel — verification sometimes takes a while and it is much harder to sort out standing in an airport.
Alipay is generally the smoother of the two for visitors and includes translation, ride-hailing and metro tickets inside the app. WeChat is the one your suppliers will use to message you, so you will end up with both regardless.
Small transactions run on the linked card with no fee below a threshold; above it a small service charge applies. Neither app is a way to pay a factory deposit.
Cards, cash and where each still matters
Foreign cards work in international hotels and in some larger restaurants, and almost nowhere else. Do not plan a week around them.
Cash is still accepted everywhere by law, and it is worth carrying — perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 yuan for a week — for the market stall, the driver who does not want an app payment, and the moment your phone dies. ATMs at Bank of China and ICBC take foreign cards reliably; airport exchange rates are poor.
Do not carry the deposit in cash. It is not safer, the factory does not want it, and undeclared currency above the equivalent of USD 5,000 is a customs problem in both directions.
Paying the factory
Factory payments are bank transfers, sent from your company account to the factory's company account, in US dollars or renminbi. They are not made through Alipay, WeChat, or any app, and a supplier who asks you to pay a deposit through a personal WeChat account is telling you something important about how they intend to invoice you.
Send the transfer after you are home if you like — there is no advantage to paying in China. What matters is that the receiving name matches the sales contract, that you keep the SWIFT confirmation, and that the invoice number is in the payment reference.
Allow two to four working days for the money to clear into a Chinese account, longer around holidays. Factories will not start production against a screenshot; they start when the bank tells them.
Practical week-of details
Get a local SIM or an eSIM before you land — the payment apps need to receive verification codes, and hotel wifi is not a plan. Keep your passport with you: hotels, and occasionally SIM registration, require it.
Set a modest daily limit in the app and keep a second card unlinked as backup. Card declines from your bank's fraud system are the single most common payment problem foreign buyers hit in China, so tell your bank the dates before you go.
Keep receipts for anything you may claim later, and if you need a formal tax invoice — a fapiao — ask at the moment of payment. It cannot be issued afterwards as easily, and a hotel that gives you one on Monday will not on Friday.
