You’ll then just need to find a way to pay them back! upload scan of passport, take selfie etc) and you’ll be good to go. Is all you will need is a verified Alipay account yourself (i.e. If you have a friend in China who has a Chinese bank account and a verified Alipay account, they can quite simply fire over some money to your account. This is probably the easiest solution of all but will rely on who you know in China already. Tourcard is clearly a useful feature and makes the life of a foreigner in China easier, but it’s important to be aware of the limitations. You’ll notice in the screenshot that only Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and JCB account holders can use Tourcard. The good news is you can open a new Tourcard after these 6 months have expired. If you have failed to spend all your money, no problem, it’ll be refunded to your bank upon expiration. The Tourcard will automatically close after 180 days of opening. Going back to those of you who are staying in China longer that 6 months… another hurdle. That means if you want to top-up the full 10,000CNY you’ll be spending another 500CNY on top of it (see why we included it in the table above now!?)ģ – The Tourcard is only active for 6 months An unnecessarily large charge just to use the service, but it is what it is sadly. What about if you’re in China for 3+ months? You’re going to need another solution on-top of this. How long are you in China for? If just a couple of weeks, or even a month – you’ll be OK. Whether this is enough for you is entirely case dependent. Now, whilst this is a step forward from the previous 2,000CNY limit of the now discontinued (but essentially the same, Tourpass), it still ties our hands a bit. There are a few things you need to know which are a little bit of a pain in truth. You won’t get a bank card though, this is simply an account you will use inside of Alipay. In completing these steps you’ve effectively opened up a brand new BANK OF SHANGHAI account in a matter of minutes. Click USE NOW and verify your personal info.Open the Tourcard mini-app (Alipay includes hundreds of mini-apps you can find by searching).There are a few downsides though, so let’s run you through it. This method is more full-proof because what you are essentially doing is opening a bank account through Alipay, and it just takes a few clicks. So it’s important to have a back-up… hence the 2nd method… 2 – Open a Tourcard Unfortunately you will not know until trying to pay in China whether it worked or not! You’ll notice in the above screenshot my Visa card has successfully linked, but this doesn’t guarantee success. Just because Alipay says its supports Visa cards, it doesn’t mean your transaction will go through in China. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing straight away. Now, the important thing to note with this method is that it may or may not work. NOTE || There is no American Express functionality but we believe they are looking to add this in the near future. These currently include Visa, Mastercard, Unionpay, and Diners Club. You’ll see the list of bank cards that can be linked with Alipay.
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