China Step by StepPractical intelligence

Alipay for foreign travellers

Alipay takes an international card for everyday spending in mainland China. China’s official payment guide lists the card networks it accepts — UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club and Discover — and Ant International states that visitors can bind those cards without a mainland bank account or phone number. Beyond that, Alipay publishes noticeably less than WeChat does: no fee schedule, no limits, no retrievable verification guide. This page marks those gaps instead of filling them with numbers from elsewhere.

Should I do it before China?

Yes — finish this before you fly

Registration is by phone number and SMS, so it depends on your own number still being reachable. If you land, swap in a Chinese SIM and take your home SIM out, the verification code has nowhere to go and the account cannot be created at all. Card binding is the other reason: no official source says which issuers work, so the only way to know is to try — and a failed attempt at home still leaves you time to pack a different card.

How

  1. Do before arrivalDownload the app and register or log in with your phone number. The official guide’s illustrated flow shows a country/region selector on the registration screen with non-Chinese dialling codes, so a mainland +86 number is not presented as a precondition. Note that this is read off a registration screenshot, not from a yes-or-no statement by Alipay.1
  2. Do before arrivalCheck your card network against the official list for Alipay: UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Diners Club and Discover. American Express is not on it — in the same document it appears on the Weixin Pay list.2
  3. Do before arrivalBind a physical card. Ant International’s announcement states that visitors can bind Mastercard, Visa, JCB, Discover and Diners Club International cards and use local Alipay services without a mainland China bank account or phone number. A press release describes an intended capability, not a guarantee for your particular card.3
  4. Do before arrivalBring a second physical card from a different issuer. No wallet publishes which issuers, virtual cards, prepaid cards or digital-bank cards bind successfully, so the practical rule is to test at home and keep an alternative.10
  5. Do before arrivalIf the app asks you to verify your identity, follow its in-app help rather than a step list from a guide site. We could not retrieve any first-party Alipay page describing passport-based real-name verification for international users — candidate URLs returned errors, expired forms or developer documentation — so the widely repeated sequence of menus and a facial scan is unverified here.4
  6. Do before arrivalDo the identity step at home rather than at a counter. The official guide says mobile payments below a certain amount are exempt from identity collection but never publishes the amount, so you cannot deliberately stay under it — and the request for passport details arrives at the moment of payment.12
  7. Can do in ChinaNote that Alipay publishes no limits of its own. The only official figures are the regulator’s: in March 2024 the PBOC had Alipay and Tenpay raise the per-transaction limit for foreign visitors from USD 1,000 to USD 5,000 and the annual cumulative limit from USD 10,000 to USD 50,000. Those are regulatory ceilings, not what the app is guaranteed to allow; the in-app message at payment time is what actually governs.11
  8. Can do in ChinaRead the actual amount on each payment confirmation screen. No publicly retrievable Alipay page states a fee rate or a fee-free threshold for foreign-card payments, so there is no number to plan against; your issuing bank’s foreign-transaction charge applies separately in any case.5
  9. Can do in ChinaExpect purchases only. Alipay+ states that a bound overseas card works for everyday spending inside mainland China and does not support person-to-person transfers, red packets, wealth management or insurance, and that Alipay+ adds no cross-border fee of its own, with the exchange rate set by the card network and the issuing bank.7
  10. Do before arrivalSave Alipay’s English service line before you travel: +86 571 2688 6000 from abroad, or 0571 2688 6000 from a Chinese number.8
  11. Can do in ChinaKeep Tour Pass in reserve, not in the plan. The prepaid card inside Alipay, issued by Bank of Shanghai, is topped up from an overseas card, and its own agreement sets the service fee at 5% of the purchase and top-up amount, charged once from the overseas card and not refunded on unused balance.9

What can go wrong

You read that Alipay waives fees under CNY 200 and charges 3% above it, and you have budgeted on that basis.

What to do instead That is the rate WeChat publishes on its own help pages, not Alipay’s. We could not find any publicly retrievable Alipay page stating a rate or a free threshold, so this site does not print an Alipay fee number at all. Check each payment screen, and use the physical card or cash for large amounts where a hidden percentage would hurt.56

You hold an American Express card and it will not bind.

What to do instead American Express is absent from the official list of networks that can be added to Alipay. Try Weixin Pay instead — the same official guide lists American Express among the networks it accepts.2

You want to send money to a travel companion, a host or a guide through the app.

What to do instead A bound overseas card covers day-to-day purchases in mainland China only; transfers, red packets, wealth management and insurance are out of scope. Settle between travellers in cash or pay separately, and expect any merchant refund to go back to the card rather than into an app balance.7

You planned to rely on Tour Pass because a guide called it the easy option for foreigners.

What to do instead It costs 5% on top, and its service agreement defines the user as a holder of a foreign passport who has obtained a PRC entry visa. It does not say whether someone who entered visa-free qualifies, so a visa-free traveller may be refused. Try binding a physical card first and keep Tour Pass as the last resort.9

You arrive in China and only then try to register, having already removed your home SIM.

What to do instead Registration runs on an SMS code sent to your own number. Register and bind at home on your own network, and keep the home number able to receive SMS during the trip — by roaming, or by keeping it in a second SIM slot.1

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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