Actually, we did try to use it again at another area near the guest house, but it turned out the pass we had wasn't valid for that area and we felt we had spent enough, so we just turned around and went for a walk around town.
While much of China is now very modern, there are some old habits that people still have...
Pretty spot by the river. What are those women under the umbrellas doing?
Well they're doing their laundry of course!
The town is actually very quiet during the day, because most people are out enjoying the park.
Because we didn't do too much yesterday, now is a good time to tell you about how we pay for things here in China. I had researched this in advance, so I had an idea of how things worked before we got here, but there's still a bit of a learning curve.
China is a very cash-less society. Yes, cash is still used, and you can use it as a tourist if you wish to. However it's sooo much easier not to. And in most cases, the business you are dealing with would prefer not to have to deal with your cash.
They have two popular apps that are used for a wide variety of things, but both of them are also used as a payment service. For tourists, you download the AliPay app and the WeChat app. It's best to have both because as I said, they are used for different things besides paying for stuff. Anyhow, once you have the apps on your phone, you link your credit card to the app. You have to do this before you arrive in China, and preferably in your home country although I was able to activate and link everything properly while we were still in Mexico.
So as an example, you go into a convenience store and buy a carton of milk. The cashier rings it in, and you bring up the AliPay app on your phone. You hit the pay button, and a barcode comes up on your phone. You scan the barcode on a little terminal at the cashier, and bingo... you've paid. With the charge going directly to your credit card back home.
Same for anything. Hotel, restaurant, tour tickets, taxis... it's all paid through the apps. In fact, we haven't been to an ATM since we arrived, and we won't need to. I have no cash on me, no worry about running out of cash, no change in my pocket, and no ATM or foreign exchange fees to deal with (provided you have a zero foreign exchange fee credit card linked to the app).
I also use the AliPay app to order a Didi taxi. Didi is the Chinese version of Uber. And it works essentially the same way. And when your ride is finished, you authorize the app to pay your bill. Easy peasy.
As much as I personally am against the idea of "them" getting rid of cash, now that I'm actually using the system, I have to admit that I really like it. It's just so easy.
Today (Sunday) is a travel day. We are taking a 7 hour train ride... in first class! This time though, unlike our freebie upgrade on the plane the other day, we are paying the extra ourselves to get more comfortable seats. Full details tomorrow!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record low deal on the popular Shark Cordless Pet Hair Vac. If you need a new vacuum, this is a fantastic deal.
And in Canada...
Wow, that's so different from Mexico, where we used cash almost exclusively. In the US now, though, we rarely use cash. I never even know how much is in my wallet. It's certainly more convenient not to have to worry about having enough cash on hand for purchases; it was a constant worry in Mexico: going to the ATM, hoping we had enough small bills/change for small things, like veggies at a produce stand where they often couldn't make change, collectivos, and so forth. I enjoyed a more cash-based society, but it was less convenient than using cards. And apps are one step beyond that. I wonder what the really old folks do? My mother doesn't even have a Smartphone. She wouldn't do too well in China!
ReplyDeleteYes, very different from Mexico and it really is a pleasure not always having to run to the ATM and get cash and then run to the bank to get those big bills changed into smaller ones. Here even the street vendors have QR codes set up at their carts. It is also nice not having to pay the ATM fees everytime you need to withdrawl cash.
DeleteMany of the older people seem to understand how to use their smart phones for all that. For the ones that have more issues with it, we have no doubt that someone in the family gets it all set up for them. Dorothy was telling us that many of the stores will accept cash from the older folks that can't use the smart phones and QR codes so they do get by without all the technology but as I said almost everyone here knows how the technology works.
In the US, it took me a while to start using technology to pay for things including paying my bills! I didn't trust it at first because my bank card was hacked and they withdrew everything from my bank account back in the day. The bank covered everything including the overdrawn fees. I created unique passwords but still took me another five to six years before I started paying bills online. Now, I use my phone or tap my card almost everywhere. I don't (or try not to) carry cash. Yes, Mexico was a different story. I got cash and found the best exchange rate to get pesos.
ReplyDeleteI think Canada is only just getting into the QR codes for paying for things but we still find that we don't need much in the way of cash there. We tend to use our credit card to pay for almost everything, that way we get travel points, although it takes ages for them to accumulate, unlike many of the cards in the US.
DeleteWe have been doing online banking since before we even started fulltime traveling back in 2007 and thankfully we have never had an issue in that regard. We have had a problem a few times with our credit cards being compromised but either us or the bank noticed it right away so we never lost money because of it, it was just a pain having to get a new one issued.
We have a feeling that it won't take Mexico long before they start using QR codes to pay for things but in the meantime we get cash from the ATM machines and find that they normally have the best exchange rate, we just need to use a certain bank in order to get the lowest ATM fee.