Money
China moved to mobile payment faster than anywhere else, and a visitor who arrives with a wallet of cards will spend the week asking shopkeepers to make an exception.
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In Guangzhou, a QR code on the counter is the payment terminal. Taxis, convenience stores, cafés, market stalls and the food counters at the fair all display one, and the transaction takes four seconds: scan, type the amount, confirm.
Cards have not disappeared, they have retreated. Hotels, international brands, large retailers and hospital-grade businesses still take Visa and Mastercard. A noodle shop does not, and neither does the counter selling phone cases in a wholesale market.
Cash is accepted everywhere by law and used almost nowhere by habit. A cashier may have to find change in a drawer that has not been opened since morning.
Both Alipay and WeChat Pay let a visitor link an international card, and the process has become routine over the past few years. It still requires identity verification with a passport, a selfie step in some cases, and a phone number that can receive a code.
Do it at home, on a stable connection, with your own bank's app available in case the card requires a second approval. The failure mode on arrival is predictable: the app wants a code sent by SMS, the roaming number does not receive it, and the buyer spends the first evening in a hotel lobby instead of at dinner.
Link two cards if you can, from different issuers. A single card that your bank blocks for a foreign transaction leaves you with nothing at the moment you need it most.
Rules change. Card acceptance, spending limits and verification steps for foreign users are revised by the platforms, sometimes more than once a year. Check the current requirements in the app before you travel rather than relying on a guide written the previous season.
Hotels, airlines, international car hire, large department stores and most hospitals accept foreign cards without discussion. So do the bigger restaurants in Zhujiang New Town and the business hotels around the complex.
Everywhere else, expect the card to be declined or the staff to ask for the QR code. Do not read that as a judgement about your bank; it is the ordinary state of retail payment in the country.
UnionPay cards work more widely than Visa or Mastercard, including at ATMs. If you travel to China regularly, a UnionPay card is worth the application.
Carry a few hundred yuan, in notes small enough to be useful. It covers a taxi when the phone is dead, a market stall that has no code, and a tip that is not expected but occasionally welcome.
Withdraw from a bank ATM rather than a currency exchange counter. ATMs at Bank of China, ICBC and the major commercial banks accept foreign cards, print an English menu and give a rate close to the interbank one, minus a fixed fee from your own bank.
Declare cash on arrival if the amount is above the threshold your country requires, and keep the receipt from the ATM. Large cash purchases are awkward to justify later to an accountant, and a supplier deposit paid in cash is a receipt you cannot verify.
The rate you get is not the rate on the board. Your own bank adds a margin, the ATM operator may add another, and both are invisible until the statement arrives. For anything larger than pocket money, compare the total cost of withdrawal against paying by card through an app, and keep the ATM slip until you are home.
Supplier payments are a different subject from buying lunch. They are bank transfers to a company account, in USD or RMB depending on the contract, and the account name must match the company name on the proforma invoice exactly.
Telegraphic transfer is the standard instrument for a first order. It costs a fixed fee at both ends and takes one to three working days, which is the reason suppliers ask for the deposit before they schedule production.
Pay from a company account, not a personal one, and keep the bank advice with the invoice. When the goods arrive and the customs value is questioned, the transfer record is the evidence that the price was real.
The currency in the contract matters more than the currency in the invoice. A price in US dollars with settlement in RMB puts the conversion on one side or the other, and the side that carries it also carries the risk of a move between signature and payment. Ask which it is before the deposit, and put the answer in the contract rather than in a chat message.
A deposit paid to a personal account is a gift unless you can prove otherwise. The company can disown it, the salesperson can leave, and no bank will reverse a transfer you authorised yourself.
The rule is simple: the account name must be the company name on the contract, the invoice and the business licence. If a supplier asks for a personal account because of tax, exchange controls or convenience, treat that as a reason to slow down, not to accommodate.
Three checks take ten minutes. Verify the business licence against the company name, verify the account name on the proforma invoice, and verify that the person asking is authorised to ask. Then send a small test transfer before the deposit if the amount is large.
China issues a VAT invoice, known as a fapiao, and it is the document that makes a purchase auditable inside the country. For an export order, the document you actually need is the commercial invoice plus the export declaration, and the fapiao matters mainly if you are buying domestically or claiming a refund.
Ask what document the supplier will issue before you pay, not after. A supplier who cannot explain their invoicing has usually not exported to your market before.
Keep every payment advice, invoice and receipt in one folder per order. Customs valuation questions are answered with paper, and a complete folder closes them in an afternoon.
Three failures account for most of them. The card issuer blocks the transaction as suspicious. The app requires a verification step the traveller cannot complete abroad. The merchant's code is for a payment type the foreign card cannot use.
In each case the answer is the same: switch to the other app, then to cash. Carrying both apps and a few hundred yuan is a redundancy plan that costs nothing.
For supplier payments, the failure is slower and more expensive. A transfer returned for a name mismatch takes days to resolve, and production does not start until the money lands. Send the first transfer early enough that a correction does not cost you a week of the delivery window.
Q Can I use a foreign credit card in China?
At hotels, airlines, large stores and bigger restaurants, usually yes. At small shops, markets and food counters, rarely. For everyday spending, link the card to Alipay or WeChat Pay instead.
Q How do I set up Alipay or WeChat Pay as a visitor?
Install the app, verify identity with your passport, and link an international card. Do it before you travel on a stable connection, and test a small purchase early. Requirements for foreign users are revised periodically, so check the current steps in the app.
Q How much cash should I carry in Guangzhou?
A few hundred yuan in small notes is enough as a backup. Withdraw from a bank ATM rather than an exchange counter, and keep the receipt.
Q Should I pay a supplier deposit from a personal account?
No. The receiving account name must match the company name on the contract, invoice and business licence. A deposit to a personal account is difficult to recover and creates a problem for your own accounts.
Q Is a fapiao the same as an export invoice?
No. A fapiao is China's domestic VAT invoice. For an export order you need a commercial invoice and the export declaration, and the fapiao matters mainly for domestic purchases or refund claims.
Q What happens if my card is declined at the fair?
Switch to the second payment app, then to cash. Card declines at small merchants are usually about the terminal or the merchant category, not your balance.
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If the deposit is agreed and the shipment needs to follow, send us the invoice and the carton data. We will tell you what the forwarder needs before the goods leave the factory.
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