I'd like to bring up ordering by QR code at restaurants today because this trend has possibly reached the point of no return, and is related to payments as well, though it's always (?) possible to decouple paying from ordering.

I am a stubborn holdout for paper menus, not because I'm a Luddite, but because I prefer bigger pictures and larger fonts than my phone facilitates. Furthermore, shamefully confusing UI often comes with the territory (in addition to wx/ap binding, there are often loyalty program and/or coupon elements haphazardly tacked on).

I'm still almost always able to get old school menus and place orders with servers (who usually use their own phones to complete the process). However, this increasingly seems to be a losing battle. For example, my favorite Korean restaurant is now down to its last two leather bound printed menus, and they are increasingly out of date.

In my opinion, the phone ordering systems aren't really any worse than tablet ordering that has plagued other markets. And, barring any substantial backlash, in both cases, the writing is on the wall (i.e. people like me will eventually fall in line).

The current upshot for eating at restaurants in China is that you should at least be prepared to view menus on your phones. Most restaurants do seem to have WiFi, though you can't bank on it always working, and of course, you probably need to do the SMS verification dance to join the network (disable your V for best results).