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Comment by kweks | Hacker News Reader

Until one week ago, the article was correct. Since then, payments in the Chinese eco system for foreigners is now a solved problem.

AliPay and WeChat recently signed agreements to facilitate foreign card support.

AliPay (as of one week ago) has full payment functionality for foreigners, called "TourPass" [0]

Download the app, and click on the 'TourPass' icon (blue suitcase in the top left). You can now add credit via a foreign credit card.

Inside the TourPass sub-app, you have two options: Scan to Pay (you scan a code and input how much to pay - peer to peer purchases and small restaurants), and Payment QR Code (your code gets scanned, and account debited - transport, etc)

You can transfer money to individuals and receive money as well.

I confirmed this as of last week in China - and was able to make all purchases (taxi, train, food, supermarket, goods, peer to peer) without any problem.

[0] https://rapidtravelchai.boardingarea.com/alipay-tour-pass/

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As mentioned in the article:

Tencent last week announced a pilot program to open up WeChat Pay to foreigners. UnTour's Mr. Long, an American, was initially excited about the program. As of Friday, he'd had no success making his Visa or Mastercard work.

Tencent, which called lack of access to mobile payments a "major pain point" for foreigners, said the rollout is initially limited to certain situations, such as booking train tickets on a travel site.

The site is only available in Chinese.

Travelers have had more luck on Alipay, which introduced a seven-step process last week that requires visitors to submit passport and visa information to Alipay, before loading money using an overseas card onto a prepaid card.

Correct. The process inside the AliPay app is extremely streamlined, entirely in English, and surprisingly painless.

I was curious so I just tried setting it up. Unfortunately, failed at the first hurdle.

Immediately after opening the app, it gave me the security prompt to access all my files. Obviously I denied it, and got the following Chinese error message: https://i.imgur.com/W6jJoDL.png

Unsurprisingly, it was because I denied access to my files, but wasn't exactly the most user friendly introduction.

After granting access, it didn't understand my mobile phone number format so I had to type it in an atypical way to get the sign up code. Once after getting through, the search function/bar (I assume?) is still in Chinese along with various other parts of the app.

These are not unsurmountable issues - but it's still not there yet.

Compared to "impossible", this is incredibly simple. Yes, parts of the app are in Chinese. It's a Chinese app. But the tourpass part is in perfect English.

If you've not been to China and experienced life without payments, the above might seem like too much effort or anti patterns, which is all true.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS9/comments/a8o833/is_samsung...

Don't take my word as the gospel truth, but it seems like Samsung Knox can sandbox such an app.

Or maybe Shelter https://www.xda-developers.com/shelter-open-source-sandboxin...

Is it a seven step process as described in the article?

Seven step seems to imply it is arduous. I can't remember if it was seven steps, but it was definitely not complicated or lengthy.

Select amount, add payment method, photo of passport, done.

I don't consider signing up for chinese surveillance system with foreign bank accounts an acceptable solution.

How about cash?

Then pay cash, like every Chinese person who can't afford a phone.

Article talks about it, quoting the article:

> First it was a shopkeeper at the Great Wall who wouldn't take cash for a bottle of water.

> "Ten years ago it was cash for everything. Now it's WeChat for everything," Ms. Sjogren said. "I'm getting used to being a dinosaur in China."

> Foreigners aren't the only ones bewildered by China's fast transition to a cashless society. "I can't even eat!" said Gong Cheng, a 61-year-old retired Shenzhen auto mechanic, who has resorted to asking strangers to pay for his takeout noodles and then giving them money.

> A few weeks later, Mr. Copley, 25, was stranded outside a bar at 4 a.m. He finally begged a Chinese couple to call him a taxi on a local ride-hailing app and repaid them in cash for the fare.

See how difficult it is? Perhaps in rural areas, it is easier. But in the cities, everyone has a phone. And, everyone needs WeChat.

> Gong Cheng, a 61-year-old retired Shenzhen auto mechanic

Lives in a city and doesn't seem to have a phone; at least he doesn't have access to mobile payments. Note that what he can't pay for with cash are takeout noodles, the kind you order online. I bet he pays cash for everything else.

Even in the cities, not everyone has a phone, simply because not everyone can afford one. The less pricey something is, the more likely you'll be able to pay with cash.

why would you use Credit Card, smart phone, or even internet though?

Part of the reluctance so far is likely due to the fact that both Alipay and WePay charge very little processing fee to the merchants (which also explains their popularity with merchants). If they accept foreign cards do they have to eat the high processing fees that come with credit cards? It is not a problem when it is a domestic bank transfer from the users' bank accounts. They can't really negotiate individually with all the card issuing banks in the world over processing fees, can they?

It's not yet solved for people living in Hong Kong, as they aren't allowed to use the international version of these apps with an HK phone number. There are AlipayHk and WeChat Pay HK, but those only work with merchants that specially allow payments from HK wallets, which is not a lot of them.

Still have to rely on cash and credit card, or set up a Chinese bank account and get the Chinese version of Alipay/WeChat Pay.

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