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Alipay, a Chinese third-party payment platform, is one of the most popular apps in China and can be used for purchasing goods and services. Alipay has basically become the necessary app in everyone's mobile phone in China. Alipay is very prevails in China, and you can use your mobile phone to make purchases anywhere in China, whether it is large shopping malls, hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, or street stalls.
Chinese name: 支付宝 Zhī fù bǎo 
Developer: Alibaba
Initial Release: December 8th, 2004
Alipay Users: 1.3 billion (2022)
Latest news: In mid-August 2023, Alipay announced the launch of a new international version to further reduce the difficulty of payment operations for overseas tourists and open more service functions. Alipay now have enabled users to link their foreign bank cards. The following card types can be added in Alipay: Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, Discover, JCB.
Alipay is the leading independent third-party payment and financial service platform in China, founded by Alibaba Group in 2004. Alipay is committed to providing “simple, secure and fast” online payment solutions for Chinese e-commerce.
In addition to providing convenient basic functions such as payment, transfer, and collection, it can also quickly complete credit card repayment, charge calls, and Pay utilities. Alipay has developed into an open platform that integrates multiple scenarios and industries such as payment, living services, government services, social, financial, insurance, and public welfare.
As of January 2022, the global Alipay users officially broke through 1.3 billion, of which 300 million users came from overseas. Alipay has successfully penetrated into every aspect of life in China. Alipay monthly active users have exceeded 650 million.
The latest international version of Alipay offers many convenient features, especially for tourists visiting China. The services and scenarios it supports are also more diverse. Besides making purchases in physical stores, you can use Alipay in China for taking buses, riding the subway, hailing taxis, biking, booking hotels, booking plane tickets, booking train tickets, and booking tickets to tourist attractions. Additionally, this APP provides translation and currency conversion tools, and supports customer service in multiple languages, including English, to help overseas tourists resolve any issues.
The answer is definitely Yes. Foreigners can use Alipay in China to purchase goods or service. Foreigners who want to use Alipay normally need the following materials: phone number, bank account. You can register for Alipay with your mobile phone number (both foreign and Chinese numbers are acceptable) and bind to an Alipay-supported bank card to make purchases and enjoy other convenient services in China.
Now registered Alipay does not need to provide detailed personal information such as passport for authentication, but when the accumulated payment amount reaches 500 US dollars, if you need to continue to use it, you must upload identity information for authentication.
►1. Download Alipay App
Search "alipay" and Download the latest version of Alipay App at your app store.
►2. Sign up Alipay account
Open the app and Tap “sign up” to register with your phone number and select your country/region. Due to potential differences in the version you download, if you register and enter the standard version of Alipay (the Chinese version), you can press the 'Me' button at the bottom right, then press the settings button at the top right to enter the settings page. There, you can select 'Switch Version' to switch to the international version.
►3. Add your bank card
There are two ways to add your bank cards. If you are registering Alipay for the first time, you can add your bank card directly on the home page as shown in the picture below.
You can also bind your bank card in the account interface. Tap “Account” section on the bottom right of the APP, then tap "Bank Cards". You can add a bank card by tapping the “+” button in the upper right corner. Once added, the number of cards you have will be displayed here.
Please note that Alipay supports Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, Discover, and JCB cards. Please make sure that the card you added is within the above range. If you have any questions about Alipay payment, you can call Alipay's English customer service hotline at +86-571 2688 6000.
You can either scan a QR code and pay a vendor or have them scan your QR code to collect money. When you are request for payment, just tap "Pay/Receive" button to load your personal QR code that can be scanned by retailers or friends. Or tap the “Scan” button to scan retailers’ QR code to make payments. When paying, you are usually asked to enter your 6-digit payment password to complete the transaction.
Alipay will now also become an automatic payment option for mobile Apps such as Didi Taxi, Meituan and Railway 12306.
Overseas bank cards refer to major international credit cards issued outside the Chinese mainland, for example, Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, Discover, and JCB cards mentioned above.
A: Consumers can add overseas bank cards to their Alipay accounts and pay for daily purchases within Chinese mainland. Transactions related but not limited to wealth management or transfers are not supported at the moment. Please refer to the page prompts when making payments for specific information.
A: Currently, the single transaction limit for overseas bank card payments has been raised from $1,000 to $5,000, and the annual cumulative transaction limit for each account has been raised from $10,000 to $50,000.
A: There is a transaction fee for using overseas credit cards. However, that for transactions under ¥200 would be waived. A 3% transaction fee will be charged for each transaction above ¥200.
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