Digital Yuan (e-CNY) for Tourists: Do You Need It and How to Set It Up

Most visitors to China do not need the digital yuan, also called e-CNY (数字人民币, shùzì rénmínbì). If your bank card links to Alipay or WeChat Pay, those two apps will cover almost all of your spending, and e-CNY adds little. It is worth installing in three situations: your card will not link to either wallet, you would rather link your card to the official e-CNY app than to Alipay or WeChat Pay, or you are carrying foreign banknotes and want to turn them into a tap-to-pay card at a Bank of China exchange machine. Visitors can open a wallet with a foreign phone number and top it up with a Visa or Mastercard, and any money left over can go back to that card before you fly home.

Do you need e-CNY? Who should install it and who can skip it

Start with the two big wallets. Alipay (支付宝, Zhīfùbǎo) accepts UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club and Discover cards, but not American Express — check the add-card screen for the current list. WeChat Pay (微信支付, Wēixìn Zhīfù) accepts all of those plus American Express, and its add-card screen also shows the latest list. In daily life, these two apps are what street stalls, taxis, convenience stores and ticket counters expect you to use. Ride-hailing, bike-sharing, train tickets and many other services also run inside them. e-CNY is a payment method, not a service platform: you open it when a shop or an app accepts it at checkout.

So for a typical trip, the plan is simple: set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly (our guides to using Alipay with a foreign card and using WeChat Pay with a foreign card walk through it), and skip e-CNY.

Install e-CNY if one of these applies to you:

• Your card keeps getting rejected by Alipay and WeChat Pay. If it is a Visa or Mastercard, an e-CNY top-up may still go through, so test one at home before you fly. The official guides name only Visa and Mastercard for e-CNY top-ups, so American Express, JCB, Discover and Diners Club cards are not on the list — check the add-card screen before counting on them.
• You would rather not link your card to Alipay or WeChat Pay. You still link a card to top up, but to the official e-CNY app instead of a large commercial platform. The wallet a visitor opens there needs only a phone number and no bank account, and it is anonymous.
• You have foreign cash and do not want to carry piles of yuan notes. Bank of China self-service exchange machines at airports, border crossings and some hotels take 20 foreign currencies and can turn your notes into an e-CNY "hard wallet", a card you tap on a card machine.

Skip it if your card already works in Alipay or WeChat Pay, you are on a short trip to one or two cities, or you do not want another app to manage. If your problem is a card that will not link, also look at the other prepaid options, such as UnionPay's Nihao China app, which lets you top up a travel wallet with a Visa or Mastercard. Our guide to using international cards in China compares them side by side.

What e-CNY is

e-CNY is China's official digital money, issued by the People's Bank of China (the central bank) and legal tender like paper yuan. The central bank issues it to approved operators, mostly banks, and those operators hand it out to the public through wallets; there were 30 of these operators by August 2026. Since 1 January 2026, real-name wallets earn interest like a bank deposit, but the anonymous wallet a visitor opens in the app does not. The difference from Alipay and WeChat Pay: those are private companies that move money from your linked card, while e-CNY is the yuan itself, held in a wallet run by a bank.

Setting it up: the app, your phone number and the wallet tier

Setup takes place in one official app. It is called "e-CNY" in English and 数字人民币 in Chinese, and you can find it by searching either name in the App Store, Google Play or Huawei's app store; the official app is not offered as a download link on a website, so do not install it from one. The App Store version has an English interface. Install it at home before you fly, while your usual app store works normally.

1. Download the app. If the screens appear in Chinese, look for a language option in the app's settings, or use your phone's camera translation to follow along.
2. Sign up with your home phone number. Visitors can register with a foreign mobile number and do not need a Chinese bank account; the central bank's 2024 guide for visitors said numbers from more than 210 countries and regions work. Keep your home SIM active during setup in case the app sends a verification code by text.
3. Open a wallet with one of the operators listed in the app. Not every operator necessarily serves foreign phone numbers, so pick from the list the app actually shows you.
4. Add your Visa or Mastercard and top up (details in the next section).
5. Set your passwords and decide on Quick Pay. You choose your own login and payment passwords, and you can switch Quick Pay (small payments without a password) on or off and set its limit yourself.

Which wallet tier you get

e-CNY wallets come in four tiers based on how much identity checking they involve. Tiers 1 to 3 need ID, and tiers 1 and 2 also need a Chinese bank account in your name; tier 4 checks only your phone number, has no bank account attached, and is anonymous. A wallet opened through the app is a tier 4 wallet, while real-name wallets have to be opened through a bank, for example at a branch. For a visitor, tier 4 is the normal and sensible choice. Under one bank's rules, a single phone number can open only one wallet with each operator, which matters only if you try to set up twice.

Each wallet has caps on its balance, on a single payment and on daily and yearly spending, set by wallet tier, and the app shows your figures on the wallet page — check them there before you count on e-CNY for a hotel bill or another large payment. As a rough guide, tier 4 wallets opened with a Hong Kong phone number are capped at 2,000 yuan per payment, 5,000 yuan a day, 50,000 yuan a year and a 10,000-yuan balance, and a wallet opened with another foreign number may have different figures, so confirm yours in the app. For meals, metro rides and small shopping, the limits are rarely the problem; finding a shop that takes e-CNY is.

If something goes wrong with the app or a top-up, the e-CNY customer service line is +86-10-956196, open 24 hours.

How to top up

The main way is from a foreign card: link a Visa or Mastercard in the app and load money into the wallet before you pay. This "top up first, then spend" option for foreign cards started in September 2023; before that, foreign cards could only fund a payment at the moment you paid. The official guides name only Visa and Mastercard for this, so if you carry another card, check the add-card screen to see whether it is offered.

There is no published fee or exchange rate for card top-ups. Your bank converts the payment from your home currency, and it may add its usual foreign transaction fee, so check your card's terms and the amount on the top-up screen before you confirm. Because unused money has to be sent back to the card later, top up in small amounts you expect to spend in the next few days.

The other way is foreign cash. At Bank of China's self-service exchange machines you can put in foreign banknotes and get either yuan cash or an e-CNY hard wallet card, and you can add more money to that card at the same machines. Not every machine may offer the hard wallet, so if the option does not appear on screen, ask at the bank counter nearby. For cash exchange in general, see where to exchange money in China.

Where you can pay with it

With the app, you pay by scanning or showing a QR code at shops that accept e-CNY. Officially it covers transport, restaurants and entertainment, shopping and household bills, but in practice far fewer small shops take it than take Alipay or WeChat Pay. In shops, look for the e-CNY acceptance sign at the till; online, the official visitor information names DiDi, Meituan, Trip.com, Qunar and JD.com among the platforms that take it — check the payment page for the e-CNY option. It is for paying merchants only: you cannot send e-CNY to another person's wallet. Ask before you order, and keep Alipay, WeChat Pay or some cash as the backup.

The app can be registered and used in the official pilot areas, which include Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi'an, Changsha, Dalian, the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Hainan, and listed cities in Zhejiang (such as Hangzhou), Fujian, Shandong, Guangxi and Yunnan. In Guangxi the list names only Nanning and Fangchenggang, so Guilin and Yangshuo are not included. That list covers most first-time itineraries. Being on the list means the app works there, not that most shops accept it, and the central bank has not said whether it works outside these areas, so check in the app before relying on it elsewhere.

The hard wallet card works differently: you tap it on a card machine that supports e-CNY, the same way you would tap a contactless bank card.

Metro and transport

Shanghai is the clearest case. Since 28 June 2025, the whole Shanghai Metro network accepts e-CNY hard wallets that meet the central bank's standard at the ticket gates, alongside contactless bank cards. In Suzhou, the metro gates accept a tap from a UnionPay contactless card or an e-CNY hard wallet, while foreign Visa and Mastercard cards cannot be tapped at the gates. In Hangzhou, the metro's ticket rules list the e-CNY app as one of the apps where you can get a Hangzhou Metro ride QR code. For other cities there is no official list of metro systems that take e-CNY, so check at the station; in most cities a contactless card or the Alipay or WeChat transit code is the easier way to ride (see our China metro guide).

In Beijing, China Unicom introduced a tourist SIM card called CUBe in 2025, issued at its counters in Beijing Capital and Daxing airports with your passport and visa. It combines mobile data, calls, e-CNY payment and the BEIJING PASS transit function in one card, with no app or registration needed. It is a physical SIM, so your phone needs a free SIM slot, and you should check at the Unicom airport counter that it is still on sale.

Before you leave: what to do with the leftover balance

Money left in an app wallet is not lost. You can send the remaining balance back to the foreign bank card or account you used to top up. There is no official word on how long the refund takes or whether it costs anything, so do it a few days before your flight and check your card statement afterwards.

If you want to delete the wallet too, the balance must be zero first and the wallet must be in normal status, not frozen; closing is irreversible, and the wallet cannot be used for payments again. You do not have to close it. If you might come back to China, you can send the money home and keep the empty wallet.

A hard wallet card is not linked to your card, so spend it down on your last days or ask at a Bank of China counter what can be done with the balance. Leftover paper yuan can be changed back into foreign currency at exchange counters in the city or before you depart. Our departing China guide covers the rest of the departure day.

Frequently asked questions

Summary

For most visitors, Alipay or WeChat Pay with a linked card is enough, and e-CNY is optional. Install it if your card will not link, if you want a payment wallet that needs only a phone number, or if you want to turn foreign cash into a tap card at a Bank of China machine. If you do, set it up and test a small top-up at home, check your limits on the wallet page, carry a backup way to pay, and send the balance back to your card a few days before you leave. For how e-CNY fits with cards, cash and the big wallets, read understanding Chinese payment systems. The central bank's payment guide for visitors to China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's e-CNY page are the official references.

Last updated: October 2026