More on payments in China 🇷🇺🇨🇳
Hi everyone! There's a ton of information online about payments in China, but as experience shows, not everyone has the time to search for it. In November 2025, I was in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and in early April 2026, I had a transit time of over 48 hours in Beijing.
While I'm on sick leave after my trip, I decided to put together the methods I used:
1. Alipay is the main payment instrument in China. Everything is integrated into it—purchases, taxis, eSIMs, and more. The main thing is to verify your Russian home phone number in advance, and don't forget your payment password (this is important; without it, you won't be able to pay for a taxi, for example). You can top up your account from your own banks; I've personally verified these:
Sberbank: payment to another country. Select China, enter the code +86, then your phone number starting with 7, A-wallet, and the amount. Sberbank's minimum transfer is 5,000. One transfer arrived in 3 minutes, another in 2 hours. The exchange rate is about 50 kopecks per ruble higher than the Central Bank rate.
VTB: payments to another country, China, using my regular phone number, Alipay. I was able to transfer 1,500 rubles; it arrived in 6 hours and 30 minutes.
Tinkoff: transfers by phone number. Select China and enter your phone number linked to Alipay, but use 1-964 (not 8-964, for example). One transfer arrived in 15 minutes, another was stuck for a week, and I had to return it through customer support.
2. Union Pay card from RSHB: you can pay with a physical card or link it to the Nihao China app and pay with QR codes. Payments are accepted everywhere; just top up your RSHB account. My card is denominated in rubles, and payment, as I understand it, is processed at the RSHB yuan exchange rate.
3. Cash yuan is accepted, but be prepared that not all stores accept it. For example, one store didn't accept cash, only electronic payments. I made a purchase in Russia at ATB Bank.
4. I also had some dollars left over from other trips, so I was able to exchange them at Bank of China. The process took about 30 minutes; be sure to bring your passport.
5. Top up your account using an Alipay QR code. At the top of the Alipay app, select "Pay and Receive" - select "Payment Acceptance" - your personal QR code will be generated, and you can save it to your gallery. In the Sberbank app, go to "Payments" - "Pay by QR code," select our code, and enter the required amount, from 3 to 1,500 yuan. My first payment didn't go through; today (April 21 at 4:00 AM Moscow time) I received 50 yuan at the exchange rate of 12:15.