I once watched a man in Xi'an pay for a bowl of biangbiang noodles by pointing his phone at a QR code taped to a plastic stool. No card, no cash, no receipt. That was a few years ago, and the country has only moved further in that direction since.

So here is the practical version: what to set up before you fly, what still works, and where you are still going to need paper money.

The three things worth doing before you land

• Alipay, with your home bank card linked
• WeChat Pay, set up as a backup
• A few hundred yuan in cash for the awkward cases

Everything else in this article is detail on those three.

Alipay is the one to sort out first

Alipay covers the widest range of merchants, from the subway gates in Shanghai to a watermelon seller outside Chengdu's People's Park. The international version is the same app. It simply switches language based on your phone settings.

Setup, step by step

• Download Alipay and register with your home mobile number, not a Chinese one
• Open "Bank Cards" and add a Visa or Mastercard
• Complete identity verification with your passport and a selfie. It usually takes a few minutes
• Set a payment password you will actually remember

What it costs

Small payments, roughly under 200 yuan, normally go through with no added fee. Above that you are looking at around three percent on the foreign card. Worth knowing before you buy a 2,000-yuan high-speed rail ticket. You can top up an in-app balance in some cases, but most people just let the card do the work.

The two QR code directions, which nobody explains

A payment happens in one of two ways, and you need both.

• You scan them. Tap Scan, point at the shop's printed code, type the amount, confirm.
• They scan you. Tap Pay or Collect, then show the barcode that appears to the cashier's scanner.

Supermarkets use the second. Noodle stalls usually use the first. Learn only one and you will eventually be the person holding up the queue.

WeChat Pay, the backup that is sometimes the only option

Some small vendors, market stalls and even a couple of monasteries display nothing but a WeChat code. Setup is similar: WeChat, then Me, then Services, then Wallet, then Bank Cards. Foreign cards are accepted now, which was not true a few years back. Mine sits there with no balance most of the time. Ten minutes of setup buys you a lot of peace of mind.

Where plastic still works

International cards work in fewer places than you would guess.

• Hotels: usually yes, occasionally with a surcharge
• Airport shops and big department stores: yes
• Convenience stores: mostly no
• Local restaurants: practically never
• Museums and major attractions: increasingly no, because tickets moved into apps

The Forbidden City, the Terracotta Army and the Shaanxi History Museum all want you to reserve and pay inside a mini program. That is not a scam; it is just how the queue works now. Do it the night before rather than at the gate, because the daily quota genuinely runs out.

Cash is not dead, it is just awkward

Cash is legal tender and shops are supposed to accept it. In practice a cashier in a Shanghai convenience store may look genuinely puzzled, and a dumpling stall may not have change for 100 yuan at nine in the morning. ATMs at Bank of China, ICBC and China Construction Bank generally take foreign cards, and the airport machines are the most reliable of the lot. Take out 500 to 1,000 yuan and stop thinking about it.

One small habit that helps: break a 100-yuan note at a convenience store early in the trip. A vendor selling six-yuan dumplings does not want to solve your change problem.

How it plays out across the country

Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an

Effectively cashless. I have spent three days in Beijing without opening my wallet. Even temple donation boxes have QR codes now.

Chengdu and Chongqing

Teahouses, hotpot and street snacks all run on codes. In Chongqing I paid for an entire hotpot dinner by scanning a sticker taped to the table, then spent ten minutes arguing about who was paying, over WeChat.

Zhangjiajie and Tibet

This is where cash earns its place in your bag again. Shuttle buses inside the park, small guesthouses near Wulingyuan, roadside stalls on the long drive out to Namtso: a 200-yuan note solves problems no app will. In Lhasa most of the Barkhor takes mobile payment, but bring small notes for monastery offerings and butter lamps.

Hong Kong, Macao and Taipei

Different systems entirely. Hong Kong runs on Octopus and contactless cards. Macao takes patacas and accepts Hong Kong dollars without blinking. Taipei leans on EasyCard and cash, with plenty of places still not taking cards at all. Your Alipay will work in a handful of Hong Kong and Macao chains, but do not build a day around it. Treat those three as separate wallets.

Odds and ends that catch people out

• Tipping is not expected anywhere in mainland China. Round up if you like; nobody will mind either way.
• Bargaining is normal in tourist markets and basically nowhere else. Fixed prices in shops are fixed.
• Keep your phone charged. A dead phone in a cashless city is a genuinely difficult afternoon.
• Screenshotting your Alipay payment barcode does not work. It expires. Open the app.
• If a payment fails, try the other app before assuming your card is blocked. It is almost always a merchant-side issue.

The short version

Set up Alipay before you fly, add WeChat Pay as insurance, carry a few hundred yuan, and stop worrying about it. Paying in China is not hard once you are set up. It is only hard if you turn up expecting to tap a Visa card at a dumpling stall. Bring a power bank and you will be fine.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.