Credit cards at places
 

At places like Great Wall, Summer Palace, TerraCotta and any place where there is an admision charge, do they accept credit cards (Amex, Visa) ?

Is Amex popular in China? I was in Europe few years ago and restaurants, hotels, usually work with Master and Visa, but not Amex.

I can't answer your specific queries, but anywhere you go in China you should carry sufficient quantities of cash to pay for food and activities. Whilst credit cards are fine for hotels and larger restaurants, cash is king in China. Have plenty of RMB100 bills on you to pay for smaller things - and change larger notes at more "honest" places if possible.

Credit cards may be able to be used at certain places, but MC and Visa are more popular than Amex, so definitely don't rely on just an Amex.

I couldn't recall seeing AMEX at all. If you have a Discover card, it can be accepted like UnionPay which I saw accepted at many places.
But cash is definitely king. Most cards will probably charge a FOREX fee anyway.

No Amex is not popular in China. Visa is recognized more than Mastercard.

Admission is usually cash.

We had an additional problem with credit cards. Some places have PIN only terminals and no manual swipe.

Just bring cash it makes your life much more simple.

Merchants accepting Visa or MC may opt for DCC.
Dynamic Currency Conversion. This converts your
transaction to USD. Which up charges the cardholder
5%. This does not negate the bank from charging
the additional 2-3% forex charge.

If its not your dime, its not a big deal.

But the entrance fee for these places is rarely as much as US$10, and usually much less. And no, they don't take cards.

In general, and with rare exceptions, institutions accept all of a short list of foreign cards or none at all: JCB, Amex, Diner's, Mastercard, Visa; but Visa and Mastercard are the better known perhaps because Chinese versions of these exist and are common amongst the tiny percentage of the population you might call middle class.

However use for anything other than large purchases in established shops is unusual, and even there may attract a fee of a few percentage points. This is still mainly a cash society, and even air tickets are typically paid for in cash.

Do your research with your bank at home, and come prepared to use a cashpoint (ATM) card to draw cash at around ¥2000 to ¥3000 per transaction, although repeated transactions in the same day (the same five minutes in fact) are usually possible, and using machines of HSBC, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, etc. raises the limit per withdrawal. Again, consult your bank for limitations, and a list of friendly ATMs.

If you think you might use your credit card be sure to alert your card provider that you will be travelling to China, otherwise your charge will anyway likely be refused. Use of a card in a shop, where possible, usually requires entering a PIN in a terminal, so again, be sure you are prepared.

But mostly it's cash all the way.

Peter N-H
China

Air ticket purchase can usually be paid by credit card. But for some small travel agent, they might be able to provide a small discount if you can pay cash.

The use of the credit card in a shop, only if they can have the Visa/Master or even JCB/Amex/Diner logo, can they accept your credit card.

The majority of POS terminal in the supermarket can only accept Unipay. But they do have one or two special terminal that can accpet the credit card issued outside of China. Just ask!

Prices quoted for air tickets by all agents large and small are predicated on the idea that you will be paying cash. IF they accept foreign credit cards, then a premium is charged. This in most cases includes tickets bought through even up-market hotels, who will be themselves passing on cash, and will prefer that to charging the ticket to your room (which, if done, will also possibly attract further charges).

The presence of credit card signs is no guarantee whatsoever that your card will be accepted (often only domestic versions of Visa and Mastercard are accepted, for instance), and nor does the absence of logos mean it won't be accepted: the connection between arranging to accept foreign cards and remembering to put up the logos is not fixed.

It should be added that if you are wise you certainly won't be shopping for souvenirs anywhere that does accept foreign cards as this will add significantly to the already high chance that you will be massively overpaying.

Cash is what you need.

Peter N-H
China

Spot on.

Ctrip is the most famous travel agent in China. It does not charge the premium for instance. There are a lot of travel agents in China, like elong.com, mango travel ect. The intense competition keeps them from adding the premium to the air ticket. But in hig-end hotels, you might be charged a premium if you do not the market price of a particular air ticket. So you need to compare the price yourself.

Most of the Master/Visa terminal in China accept the credit card issued only in China because they do not use Master/Visa line, they use the Unipay line. All the credit card/debit card issued in China are automatically unipay supported.

Perhaps, although there are other contenders for the title. However, fame is not relevant. Generalising from from one travel agency that specifically targets foreigners for on-line sales, and which is thus bound to offer credit card service if it can, or even from its handful of similar competitors, counts for little compared to the tens of thousands of walk-in and telephone-operated ticket agencies in China.

The original assertion concerning 'discounts' for cash is in general incorrect. Ticket purchases (including in most cases through hotels) are assumed to be in cash, and an additional percentage of between 1.5% and 4% is charged for the use of foreign cards where these are accepted at all.

Ctrip, it might be added, has had varying arrangements concerning foreign credit cards over the years, including periods when it did not accept them either.

Indeed. Contrary to what was said earlier, the presence of Mastercard and Visa logos and signage is no guarantee whatsoever that a foreign card will be accepted. The purported mechanics of the transaction are neither here nor there.

Once again: visitors to China need to do as the Chinese do. And for the most part, for the kinds of transactions under discussion, that's to pay in cash.

And it is not unusal in US as well. Some wesite like AA.com can only accept the credit card issued in US. Even the Canada-issued CC is not accepted. I still can not figure out why is that.

This is the correct advice. Most hotels catering to foreigners will take Amex etc, but for everything else plan on using cash.

Not unusual to see Chinese friends pull out bricks of 100 RMB notes when settling a large bill.

There's no paper trail for cash transcations.
Over 90% of China's cards are debit not credit.
Its a crime punishable by imprisonment to default on a credit card.

Not sure about Ctrip, but eLong does charge 3% fee for airfare purchase using foreign CC.