Mrs B cleverly stumbled onto a TripADeal package trip to China. She was looking for something in SE Asia but this was irresistible for the price, so we are going for 10 days in March.
Here's the thing. My read on the situation is that some form of Touch and Pay is just about mandatory for the PRC these days, at least in where we are going (Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai). Mrs B uses Apple Pay and I use Google, but I understand that AliPay and WeChatPay are pretty universal.
Any advice on which to use, security, anything else that might be helpful?
I'm also considering the best way to use a mobile phone. We are staying in 4-star hotels with Wifi, but would like data for things like DiDi, etc. I am not keen on just picking up a local Chinese SIM card like we do in SE Asia, ideas on the best local global roaming deal? The current clubhouse leader looks like Felix + its roaming pack.
I am across the idea that Google will not work, so no Google Maps, GMail, Translate, all that. Alternatives?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
China Payment Method and Mobile Advice?
Last edited 03/08/2023 - 14:33
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What I am hearing is, things are much different now. Basically a cashless society in the places to which we are going
Many changes in 4 years
Plenty of sims available on Amazon for China travel.
We went in March, 2019 on a TripaDeal tour and it was absolutely fantastic. Excellent value and guides were lovely.
Tiananmen Square was closed as in March and October there's a massive conference held there for (I think) local government. You still walk past it on your way to The Forbidden City. There were lots of military and police around - DON'T TAKE PHOTOS OF THEM! I saw other tourists attempt it and they reacted very, very quickly.
Our guide did say when we were still on the bus on our way not to mention anything about what had happened there while we were out and about in public or we wouldn't have a guide that afternoon. She also hired head sets extremely cheaply if we were interested for the walk through The Forbidden City - they were great as we could hear her clearly without being on top of her - much easier in a group of people in a crowded location. And you knew you were keeping up if you could hear her!
If you like salt, take a few sachets with you. We took muesli bars for shacking on the bus - very handy. We were given bottled water on the bus each day, and the guides also sold beer.
Enjoy your trip.
Thanks, good to know. Normally we would not go near a package deal in Asia, we prefer to book fares and make our own way, but it makes a lot of sense to do it in China. Because, well, China
Another great piece of advice was when you go to The Great Wall of China and you take one step, you have walked on The Wall. It doesn't have to be many steps, one will do.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Good enough for me!
Wechat pay is pretty much what everyone uses over there. Ali pay is used too but not as much. You won’t be able to link a non China issued card on there. You can add friends and get them to transfer you funds onto your account and you give them the cash.
you will be able to link an australian visa/mastercard no problems. it is only a recent development though. I used my ING debit card with wechat pay in July/August
Also good to get a VPN before going to China if you want to access social media like facebook to keep in touch with family. We found it great to have facebook chat with our daughters when we were in our hotel.
This is something you need to organise before you go - can't get it when you are there.
Thanks, have Nord on all my devices, trusting it to working in the PRC
How did you go with Nord VPN in China?
Cannot even use ExpressVPN atm, think all VPNs are struggling atm. Roaming doesn’t get blocked if that is OPs solution.
@ATangk: International roaming bypassed their firewall.
Also I believe most if not all sims you buy outside China bypasses firewall too
Nord did not work in China anymore, was there in July
I travel to China regularly including several times this year.
You won't be able to use WeChat pay, as in order to do so you require a Chinese bankcard, and to get that you need a work permit.
You will be able to link your Australian card to Alipay, which you can install from the app store. I recommend doing this before you go.
Carry some cash (RMB) as Alipay is not accepted by all taxi drivers.
There has been a big crackdown on VPNs and I can never get any to work. They used to work pre 2020.
Roaming international phone numbers typically have more open access to the internet so if you need Western internet you better yet a roaming pack.
you can now link aussie visa/mastercard to wechat pay. you won't be able to send "red packets" though but you can shop and use apps
Yeah seems like you can. Any way to change the language?
Basic English functionality. Al the mini apps will still be in Chinese. Alipay at least has translate function now.
Came back from China recently
1) No problem linking your Aus card to Wechat Pay and Alipay, you will need to do a passport verification first which takes ~ 3 days to process so don't leave it last minute.
2) For my (i)Phone I used LetsVPN which worked brilliantly, super fast and very reliable. Pay in the app using Apple balance. Have heard that most large VPN providers don't really work anymore.
Last time I was in China, 2019 or so, I remember hearing that you could set up AliPay to use your own cards to pay with, good to use with smaller street vendors for food and things like that. I'm not sure if anything has changed since, but if you're roaming you can continue to use Google services.