Got an ICBC UnionPay USA-issued card earlier this year (2018) as I travel frequently to China and needed a card that could be accepted in more places than Visa was. Unfortunately, this card is not the answer. Most restaurants in Shanghai that do not accept Visa also do not accept this UP USA card! it’s difficult to tell beforehand whether the POS system will, so I either have to ask restaurant to run a test charge before eating or carry cash back-up. Well more than half of the restaurants I went to so far did not accept the UP USA card. But all that accepted Visa accepted the UP USA card too. Only a handful of restaurants i’ve been to that did not accept Visa did accept UP USA card. but it’s anyone’s guess which will. I can’t tell by the POS, but it appears many of the older looking machines seem to accept more frequently. Family Mart however does accept this card via their contact-less POS machines.

called ICBC USA customer service several times and each time they pointed to “operator error” (charge never received on their end). One time one customer service rep actually admitted that some (I’d say most) POS machines in China do not work with this card.