Visa and other international bank cards will be accepted by WeChat Pay to facilitate the payments by overseas tourists in the Chinese mainland starting from mid-July, said Royal Chen Qiru, vice-president of Tencent Financial Technology, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions on Wednesday in Tianjin.

WeChat Pay covers tens of millions of merchants across China, said Chen. “The move will allow overseas travelers to use their smartphones to pay merchants across China, from shops to hotels to transport providers,” he said.

WeChat Pay and Ali Pay are two major electronic payment platforms in China and the latter allows travelers outside China to bind international cards to access cashless payment services in China.

WeChat piloted payments by overseas visitors via credit cards on selected platforms such as ride-hailing services DidiChuxing and China’s official train ticketing platform “12306” since November 2019. Payments partners included Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Global Network and JCB.

The new service is limited to payments to merchants in China, with personal transfers, red envelopes and other social payment activities excluded.