I was helping a friend to set up Alipay recently and it is much easier now than a few years ago. Basically all you need is a foreign card and a phone number. Surprisingly, you can also send money from foreign cards to individuals (which I did from friend's account). It is better to verify with a passport later, but the set up for very temporary visitors is much easier now. WX is still a bit of a pain though.

Slightly OT: Do any of the mainland issued cards ever bear cardholder's name? Not that they are ever used (physically) much except to identify yourself at the bank these days, but the cards I got don't have the name printed.