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WeChat Wallet challenge: How can you survive in Beijing without any cash?

Reporter: Martina Fuchs 丨 CCTV.com

10-28-2016 16:35 BJT

Mobile phone commerce is now an every day convenience for over 700 million users worldwide. In fact over the last year, it's estimated more than 334 billion US Dollars in retail transaactions were sent by apps like AliPay and WeChat Wallet across China. So we challenged our reporter Annelise Nielsen to take to the streets of Beijing for the day with no wallet. Let's see how she went.

Stepping out to buy some groceries in China you might think you need to bring your wallet. But think again. China's skipped the western obsession with credit cards and ATM cards and gone straight to mobile payments. So let's give it a go

Ni Hao, gei wo liangge pingguo. Xiexie.

In less time than it takes two weigh my apples, I can easily scan the QR code. And authorise the payment,

Alright xie xie ni, thank you. Bought with no cash required.

So now with the grocery shopping sorted, let's see where else my phone can take me in Beijing.

The newest way to get around is MoBike. The app launched just two months ago is known as the Uber for bicycles.

It takes just a few moments to find my nearest MoBike. There's more than 2 thousand scattered around Beijing. And all I have to do to pick it up is scan the QR code. You wait a few moments
 
And of course the most important part of any work day in China is lunch. I've just stopped with my colleague Xuejing and not only can we pay by WeChat so we'll give that a go. Xie Xie. We can actually split the bill between us using the Go Dutch service. All you have to do is enter in the number of people that you've dined with and it will automatically send each person their own portion of the bill. It's pretty cool

So while we've got our wallets out I've been able to top up our phone credit. Xeujing's been able to pay her water bill and we've even got a taxi on the way to get us back to work. Not bad.






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