Originally Posted by
Internaut
One observation from my trip: very few businesses advertise acceptance of Visa, MasterCard and Amex, but more actually take them than you might think. A typical refrain is “I can try it for you” (and it often worked for me). Having access to WeChat or Alipay, as a casual visitor, would be very nice though.
Yes, the POS system in many restaurants and shops can actually take foreign credit cards and the staff may not be aware of this. Sometimes I go for dim sum at a moderately priced restaurant, they have one card reader that can take foreign cards but only a few of the staff know this. I have my girlfriend tell them when the server is confused about my paying with a VISA card.
Many shopping malls have a pay station centrally located and shared between many shops that can take VISA/MC and sometimes AMEX.