Shanghai, an action plan to facilitate payments for foreigners

The Shanghai Municipality promotes an action plan to facilitate payments for foreigners

The General Office of Shanghai Municipality has released the “Shanghai Action Plan to Further Improve Payment Convenience”, aiming to streamline payment procedures for foreign visitors coming to China.

The expected objectives will concern the following areas:

– Wider acceptance of foreign bank cards at key locations such as restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals, tourist attractions, hotels, transportation centers;

– An increase in the availability of ATMs from which it is possible to withdraw with foreign bank cards and the maintenance of cash payment channels, as well as a greater presence of foreign currency exchange points;

– The optimization of mobile payment services, facilitating the use of payments by “foreign-card bound” on the main local platforms (WeChat Pay, Alipay);

– The simplification of services relating to bank accounts for foreigners, from online appointment for account opening to the provision of multilingual services;

– The creation of dedicated areas in Pudong and Hongqiao airports and in star hotels, where visitors can purchase cards for city transport and exchange currency, receiving local currency even in small denomination;

– Greater communication activity, to promote the new measures to foreigners through the use of guides, promotional videos and dedicated consultancy structures.

The plan proposed by Shanghai is in line with the measures proposed for the entire Chinese national territory. The difficulty of making payments using foreign bank cards represents in fact another barrier, in addition to the linguistic and cultural ones, that visitors arriving in China face, making facilitation in this regard increasingly necessary.

https://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw12344/20240430/17d55b402ea04e3eadb86983b1850681.html)