Shenzhen prioritizes international payment accessibility

An American arriving at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport can buy a coffee with PayPal. A South Korean shopping for electronics in Huaqiangbei, the city’s sprawling electronics hub, can pay with Hana Pay. A Vietnamese visitor dining in Shekou can settle the bill with ZaloPay.

In each case, visitors do not need to download a new Chinese payment app. They can open the digital wallet they already use at home, scan a WeChat Pay QR code and pay much as they would in their own countries.

The seemingly routine transactions reflect China’s efforts to make its mobile payment system more accessible to international visitors — an issue of growing importance in Shenzhen as the city prepares for an influx of visitors from across the Asia-Pacific ahead of the APEC summit in November.

TenPay Global, the cross-border payments platform of Shenzhen-based Tencent, is participating in China’s unified cross-border QR payment gateway. The system connects WeChat Pay’s extensive merchant network with nearly 50 overseas digital wallets.

In August, TenPay Global and Singapore-based digital wallet ShopeePay announced a partnership that initially allows ShopeePay users in Singapore and Thailand to make QR code payments in China.

Wallets already connected to the network include PayPal in the U.S., Hana Pay and Travel Wallet in South Korea, and ZaloPay in Vietnam. More wallets from APEC economies are expected to join.

For Choi Cheol-ho, a South Korean businessman who came to Shenzhen in 1999 to trade computer components, the evolution of payment methods mirrors the city’s transformation.

Choi later opened a South Korean restaurant, which has also become a gathering place for Korean businesspeople. International business travelers once had to exchange money before arriving, calculate exchange rates on their own and carry cash around the city, Choi said.