Payments and connectivity in China: what works in 2026

The biggest practical change. Both apps run a "Tour Pass" flow that accepts a Visa or Mastercard issued outside China, with per-transaction caps in the AUD 500-1,000 range and monthly caps in the AUD 6,000 range. That is more than enough for a two-week trip including meals, taxis, museum tickets, and souvenirs.

Install both apps before you fly. The download path on the Chinese mainland is slower and occasionally requires a fresh account. Australian iPhones and Android phones both run the apps without modification.

Inside the app, scan-to-pay is the universal pattern. You hold your phone, the vendor scans your QR. Both apps display a recent transactions list in English. There is no language barrier in normal use.

Credit cards work at international-brand hotels, at the airport, and at a small number of high-end restaurants that cater to overseas guests. Outside that, foreign cards are not the default rail. Use the apps.

Cash still works everywhere we use, including small market stalls and noodle shops. Carry RMB 1,000-2,000 in cash for the first day in case an app payment fails (which it occasionally does on the first scan as the apps verify your identity).

ATMs accept overseas cards at major bank branches. Bank of China, ICBC, and China Construction Bank are the three we recommend. Withdrawal fees apply both Chinese-side and Australian-side; check your card's overseas withdrawal terms before flying.

The eSIM path is the easiest one. Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone all support overseas eSIM activation; you arrive, switch the eSIM on, and have a working Chinese mobile data connection within minutes. Data plans typically run AUD 5-15 per day depending on volume.

A VPN is still useful, but the situation is more nuanced than the simple "install a VPN to access Google" advice from a decade ago. Australian travellers on an Australian eSIM are routed through international gateways, which means many sites that would be blocked on a Chinese SIM remain accessible. The VPN is the backstop if you switch to a local SIM mid-trip.

We recommend installing one trusted VPN before flying (ExpressVPN, Astrill, or NordVPN are the three we currently brief). The download flow inside China is sometimes blocked; before-you-fly is the path that always works.

Hotel WiFi at the brands we use (Aman, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Rosewood, etc.) is professional-grade and bypasses the local content filter on most international sites. It is also, like any hotel WiFi anywhere in the world, observable by the property's network team and, in China specifically, subject to occasional state inspection.

Practical discipline:

• Do not log into Australian banking on hotel WiFi
• Do not log into work email containing sensitive material
• The VPN handles both of the above without friction
• WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and Gmail all work on hotel WiFi at the brands we use, with or without VPN

For a leisure trip, none of this changes the daily experience. It is the same surveillance discipline you would apply at any hotel in a country with active state monitoring. The cognitive overhead is "install one VPN before flying."