Why this matters more than it should
Beijing is not cashless by law — refusing cash is actually prohibited, and if you insist, you will be served. But the city has been built around QR payment for a decade, and in practice a lot of ordinary transactions assume it: ordering by scanning the code on the table, unlocking a shared bike, topping up a metro trip, buying a museum ticket that only exists inside a mini-programme. Turning up with only a Visa card and a handful of notes works, but it makes every small interaction slower than it needs to be.
Setting up before you fly
Both Alipay and WeChat accept international cards from foreign visitors, and either one alone is sufficient. Doing the setup at home matters because the process may send a verification code to your bank, may trigger a fraud hold, and occasionally needs a passport photo upload — none of which you want to be handling in an arrivals hall.
- Register with the phone number you will actually be carrying. Verification codes go there, sometimes more than once, including later in the trip.
- Add the card, then make one small real payment. An unverified card that has never been charged is the usual reason a payment fails at the till.
- Tell your bank you are travelling. A first Chinese merchant charge is a classic fraud trigger.
- Complete identity verification with your passport. Some functions, including certain ticket bookings, are gated behind it.
- Note the fee. Small transactions are typically free; above a threshold in the low hundreds of yuan there is usually a percentage fee. It is modest, but it is there.
What each one is best at
| Alipay | WeChat Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign card setup | Generally the smoother of the two | Works, occasionally fussier about verification |
| Metro QR | Yes, built in | Yes, built in |
| Ride-hailing | Didi available inside the app | Didi available inside the app |
| Attraction tickets | Many official booking mini-programmes | Many official booking mini-programmes |
| Translation help | Built-in translate on menus and signs | Chat translation, weaker on images |
When a payment fails
Failures are almost always the foreign card, not the app. In order of likelihood: the bank has blocked the charge and is waiting for you to confirm it; the transaction is over the small-payment threshold and the app wants re-verification; identity verification was never finished; or the merchant's terminal only accepts domestic accounts, which happens with some small vendors and ticket machines.
The practical fix is to have both apps set up with the same card, and cash as the third fallback. Two independent payment paths turns a stressful evening into a mild annoyance.
Rough costs
| Item | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Metro journey | ¥3–9 |
| Bowl of noodles, neighbourhood place | ¥15–30 |
| Sit-down dinner for two, mid-range | ¥150–300 |
| Peking duck at a well-known restaurant | ¥300–600 for two |
| Forbidden City admission | ¥60 in peak season, ¥40 off-peak |
| Mutianyu Great Wall, entry plus cable car | ¥120–160 |
| Airport Express, either airport | ¥25–35 |
Prices are indicative and were last sanity-checked in August 2026. Admission fees in particular change with the season.