Back in China, foreign tourists face a destabilizing all-digital daily life

Totally absent in China during the Covid epidemic, foreign visitors are gradually returning and discovering a China where everything now works thanks to digital technology and via applications that are sometimes difficult to understand.

Despite the 40 degrees, like every day, tens of thousands of Chinese tourists crowd in front of the main entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing. In the middle of this very dense crowd, a very small group seems to hesitate. It’s a family of Portuguese tourists who also want to visit the famous palace, but they don’t have tickets and are a little lost. “We had to ask for help from security, explains Inès, student. They told us we had to use WeChat. The problem is that in China, I can’t install any applications on my phone, because I use the Google store which doesn’t work here. And so, it’s difficult to get tickets. We couldn’t visit the museum for this reason.”

Without local applications Wechat or Alipay, life is a nightmare in China. It is almost impossible to pay in a store, take a taxi or even make a reservation in a museum, like here at the Forbidden City. Notes and coins are not always accepted and international bank cards almost never. Tourists who have not anticipated find themselves stranded in their stay, sometimes for very trivial actions, as Mélanie and Alexandra, two French tourists, tell us: “Even for toilet paper, in a market in Beijing, we noticed that there was a box outside, that we had to scan a QR code. We never knew how it worked. QR codes are everywhere. It’s a culture shock.”

In addition to the difficulties in paying, there is also the blocking of certain Western sites in China: Google, Facebook or even WhatsApp are not accessible. “It’s frustratingexplains Thomas, a young Canadian tourist. It’s a very beautiful country, the cities are very impressive, but we’re having a terrible time trying to get to grips with their unique digital environment. I still can’t get used to it and I probably never will.” His partner Mady goes in the same direction: “Every time we want to pay for something, we have to use WeChat. Every time, we waste a lot of time, nothing is in English. It’s quite disturbing.”

Lionel, a French tourist from Strasbourg, also has a lot of difficulty coping: “Everything is complicated: withdrawing money, changing cash. In restaurants, they don’t take credit cards anywhere. In Shanghai, it was complicated, in Beijing, it’s even more complicated. Every day, It’s a challenge and I’m a little tired of it.”

Aware of these difficulties, the Chinese authorities are trying to help foreign tourists. To see this, we leave Beijing for Xi’an, another major tourist center in China, known for its famous Army of Buried Soldiers. The municipality of Xi’an has launched an experiment in a small commercial district frequented by tourists. There, we meet a British man in a restaurant who is paying for his meal with his Visa card. One of the waitresses explains: “The Xi’an municipality has ordered businesses like ours and other restaurants in the area to equip themselves with terminals for foreign bank cards. This is to make it easier for tourists to spend. Before, they had to pay in cash.”

The manager of the hotel located next door confirms: “You see, each time there is a small sign indicating the Visa card or Mastercard. The authorities encourage this development, because there are more and more foreigners coming to visit Xi’an.

“Tourists come to eat in restaurants and as we know that some cannot use WeChat or Alipay, we are implementing this type of payment throughout the district.”

a restaurant manager in Xi’an

at franceinfo

Measures have also been taken at national level: it is now possible to add your foreign bank card in applications Alipay And Wechat to be able to pay with the famous QR codes.

And if some vacationers have difficulty adapting, others find it ultimately not so complicated. You just have to prepare well before your stay in China, believes Christophe, a Swiss retiree who is returning home happy after his first Chinese vacation: “We are traveling here in a 100% digital country. If you have not prepared for this, you must stay at home. You have to live like the people here. In the end, it works really well and the people are so friendly.“

Anticipate, to avoid finding yourself like Julien, a young French tourist who had to walk ten kilometers on mountain roads. Without a 4G network, he was unable to use his Chinese applications to buy a simple bus ticket. Mishaps that do not discourage foreign visitors. Between January and April 2024, 100,000 French tourists visited China, for example. Like several European but also Asian countries, the French benefit from a visa exemption measure for stays of less than 14 days.