Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.
This is true for every other country in the world, yet somehow it's done. China is the exception.
Someone just told me that the Shanghai hotel I stayed in for several days last week costs foreigners double the Chinese rate. Undoubtedly, part of that rate includes various taxes, and takes the payment margin into account.
No, that's just a thing that happens. It's not unique to China, or even this point in time. I've been to lots of places in the world where I've gotten the "tourist" menu at a restaurant, which has higher prices.
But when it comes to credit cards, China is truly different: They don't have Visa or MasterCard (or AmEx) in the country. They do have Union Pay, which is a special, China-only credit card.
So businesses do often take credit cards. They just don't take non-Chinese credit cards.
In this sense, they are different from other countries I've visited.
Not China-only. Union Pay is widely accepted in the United States, and probably every other country. Even small gas stations in the middle of nowhere take Union Pay.
India kind of makes sense, but the Netherlands? Seriously? I hope things are different now.
Visa and MasterCard operate in China. Before 2016, dual branded visa/MC/Amex/UnionPay cards were pretty common (I had a couple). Then the government made that illegal for some reason. Lots of places do accept credit cards (eg starbuxks, hotels, fancy restaurants, ...).