Paying for Things in Shanghai

Shanghai is close to cashless. Street vendors, taxi drivers, temple donation boxes and noodle shops all expect a phone. Foreign cards work at hotels and high-end restaurants; almost nowhere else.

The fix takes about fifteen minutes and should be done before you fly, not at the airport.

Set up a wallet before you land

Install Alipay or WeChat Pay and add your Visa or Mastercard to it. Both accept international cards for most everyday payments, subject to a per-transaction limit and a service fee on larger amounts. Verification usually needs your passport.

Do this on hotel wifi the night before you fly. Doing it on airport wifi, tired, with a SIM that is not receiving SMS yet, is how people end up paying cash for everything.

Carry some cash anyway

A few hundred yuan in small notes covers the cases where phones fail: a dead battery, a network outage, a very small vendor, or a place whose reader does not like your card.

ATMs at the airport and at major bank branches accept foreign cards. Bank of China and ICBC branches are the most reliable; withdraw more than you think you need.

What cards work, and where

UnionPay is universal. Visa and Mastercard work at international hotels, large department stores, airport shops and tourist-facing restaurants — and increasingly nowhere else. Amex and Discover are rare.

The pattern: the bigger and more international the business, the more likely a foreign card works. The smaller, the more likely it is phone-only.

Tipping and small money

Tipping is not expected in restaurants, taxis or hotels. Round up if you want to. Guides and drivers on private arrangements appreciate it but do not assume it.

Bargaining is normal in markets and abnormal in shops. If there is a price tag, that is the price.