Beijing Not Completely Cashless

It's so easy to buy things with your phone -- if you have WeChat Pay or AliPay

Last year I had a heck of a time buying things in cash when I visited Beijing because I didn't have WeChat Pay or AliPay. I remember going to JNBY, a domestic fashion brand and buying a dress there at their outlet in Sanlitun Village, and having to give exact change because they didn't have any cash whatsoever.

You can even take the subway by using your smartphone

But this time paying in cash was not a problem. It turns out in July, China's central bank issued a directive that the yuan was the country's legal currency and no units or individuals should refuse payment in cash.

During this trip some places would ask if we would pay by Weixin (WeChat) or cash, and we'd reply the latter; otherwise they would just accept cash no problem.

In subway stations you had to add money into the card using a machine instead of asking the person in the ticket booth to do it for you. However, at Beijing Capital International Airport (T3), the person there will help you add money to your card with cash.

Some people don't even use the Beijing subway card to ride the metro -- they use an app on their phone that they scan at the turnstile. 

There were only two instances where we had a slight problem -- two restaurants I went to expected us to order our food using WeChat. In one case my friend who lives in Beijing did the ordering (and paying) on WeChat at Beijing WTown -- in Miyun district, way outside of Beijing!

But getting a McFlurry required cold, hard cash

But in the other instance at a dumpling shop in a shopping mall in Wudaokou, we told them we didn't have WeChat so they took our order using a little handheld device and we paid in cash.

And then late one night my friend had a craving for a McFlurry -- even though we had just eaten a full-on dinner -- and made a pit stop at McDonald's near our hotel.

The thing is, their electronic payment system wasn't working so people had to pay in cash! They had to turn away several customers who only had money in their smartphones...
 

Picture of the Day: Spidermen on The Egg

Can you spot the four men on the roof of The Egg?!

We walked a lot today -- even before lunchtime we had walked from Xidan to Chang'an Avenue to get to Tiananmen Square and then Wangfujing. On the way we made a detour to the National Centre for Performing Arts, known as The Egg.

Before we wandered inside, we walked around the whole building and at the back of the building we were shocked to see four men up on the roof.

Two were near the top -- with no safety ropes -- and cleaning the windows in the middle of the building -- while two others were suspended by ropes and using a hose to power wash the metallic shell. Presumably they were trying to wash off the accumulated dust.

It was quite a sight to watch these men cleaning the performing arts centre and I wondered if perhaps they were ex-military with experience repelling down buildings...