I am an American and just resumed business travel to Asia and had 2 trips in China in May. Wow, 3 years of pandemic really decimated cash payment even more. I speak Chinese and even with my knowledge of China, it's very very difficult to spend cash as shocking as it is to say. I am more determined than ever to setup WeChat Pay or AliPay.

Yes, you can go to certain nicer restaurants, and they will take your credit card and cash, but the typical small shops or mom/pop food stalls mostly do not want to accept cash. I was even lectured by a food stall granny that it's unsanctuary for her to touch cash and then prepare my food. I was speechless. I was also insulted by other for not having WeChat Pay or AliPay. I went to a local fast food chain and the cashier is a 18/19yo looking girl and when I handed her 100RMB bill for a 28RMB meal, she literally asked me "what is that" pointing to the cash! She had to get her manager to come help accept cash and figure out how to provide change to me. The food was good, so I went back the next day. The moment she saw me, she made a PA for her manager "Cash mister is here!" They warn me that they don't have enough cash that day to provide change for a 100RMB bill because "Another foreigner came in today and used up all of our cash!"... I couldn't even make up these stories if I wanted to...

The only place that took my cash/coin was the subway station recharge machine. Except at airport/train stations or major transfer/exchange stations, most of the cash-accepting kiosks are removed in favor of the QR-code scanning kiosks. I panic in one instance because I didn't have enough Shanghai IC card balance for my ride and there was no cash-accepting kiosks. The station staff told me to go to the convenience store to recharge IC card with cash because the station itself no longer handle cash recharge. The store clerk didn't want to... It seems like people believe cash is dirty and a COVID transfer touchpoint... I then remember I was lucky enough to get a new T-Union 交通联合 IC card from my first trip to a new city. That card was usable in Shanghai At least I can carry just one IC card.

I've almost given up hope on WeChat pay. I was able to verify my identity with passport and foreign credit card. My wallet seems to be setup but I can't 'add funds' from my US-issued Visa card. I looked at AliPay but it seems like they will auto setup Bank of Shanghai Prepaid Card, but the card has an 180-day expiration period. It's not clear what happens to our preloaded funds after this 180-day period. The terms and conditions I read suggest the unused fund is gone after the expiration period. Does anyone know if this is true?