Scan or be scanned: the two directions of paying by phone in China

The jianbing stall outside a metro exit in Beijing's Dongcheng district has no till. It has a griddle, a woman drawing a wooden spreader across a thin crepe, and a laminated square taped to the glass: two QR codes, one blue and one green, curling at the corners from the steam. The man ahead of you holds his phone up to the square, types a few digits and turns the screen toward her. She doesn't look, because a small black speaker on the counter has already announced the payment. Then it is your turn. Whether your phone can pay is already settled. The real question is which way the scan is supposed to go.

Two codes, two directions

Mobile payment in China runs on two kinds of code, and it helps to know the words before you land. The shoukuanma (收款码), the "collect-money code", belongs to the seller. It is a printed square at a stall or a small stand beside the till. You open Alipay, known locally as Zhifubao (支付宝), or WeChat Pay, Weixin Zhifu (微信支付), tap Scan, point at the square, type the amount yourself and confirm.

The fukuanma (付款码), the "pay code", belongs to you. It is the barcode and QR pair behind the Pay button in either app, and the cashier reads it with a handheld scanner or a small glass window set into the counter. Convenience chains such as FamilyMart (全家, Quanjia) and Lawson (罗森, Luosen) work this way, as do supermarket checkouts and many chain coffee counters. When a cashier says qing chushi fukuanma, they are asking to see that screen. They are not asking you to scan anything.

请出示付款码。

The phrase is often clipped to just fukuanma, or replaced by a nod at the scanner. If you can't tell which way the scan goes, open your pay code and hold it out. A cashier who wants the other direction will point at the printed square.

Reading a stall before you scan

At a street stall or a caishichang (菜市场), a neighbourhood wet market, the printed code is usually the only choice, and a few seconds of looking pay off. A blue frame and the Alipay logo mean Alipay. Green means WeChat. Many stalls now show a single juhema (聚合码), an aggregated code printed with several logos, which either app can read. Old codes fade, peel and get taped over, so scan the newest-looking one.

Because you type the amount yourself, the likely mistake is yours. Handwritten price boards at fruit stalls often give a price per jin (斤, half a kilo) rather than per item, so wait for the vendor to weigh your fruit and say the total before you type. Before you confirm, the app shows who you are paying. For a small vendor this is often a person's name with some characters hidden, not the stall's name, and that is normal.

Once the money arrives, the speaker says Zhifubao daozhang (支付宝到账), "Alipay received", followed by the amount, or Weixin shoukuan (微信收款) for WeChat. Vendors listen for that voice instead of checking your phone. Where there is no speaker, turn your screen toward them so they can see the green tick and the total. At a busy breakfast stall they may only glance before waving you on.

Ordering from the table sticker

In sit-down restaurants, especially newer noodle shops and chains in cities like Chengdu and Hangzhou, the table is the menu. A sticker on the table corner or a stand by the chilli jar carries a code that opens a xiaochengxu (小程序), a mini-program inside WeChat or Alipay that already knows your table number. You browse, add dishes, and the order reaches the kitchen without anyone speaking.

Two things trip visitors up. The menu inside is usually in Chinese with photos, so a camera translation app is worth having ready. The mini-program may also ask to authorise your phone number, shouquan shoujihao (授权手机号), before it lets you order, and a foreign number sometimes fails at this step. When that happens, catch a server's eye. Most places will take the order on a tablet or a paper pad while you point at the photos. Some shops charge before the kitchen starts and others leave the bill open until you go, so look for xianfu (先付), "pay first", on the ordering screen.

Tea and coffee chains take this a step further. At Luckin Coffee (瑞幸, Ruixing), Heytea (喜茶, Xicha) or Mixue Bingcheng (蜜雪冰城), many customers order in the mini-program while still on the pavement and walk in only to collect. A screen above the counter shows pickup numbers, each a qucanma (取餐码), and you watch for your number, not your name. Ordering at the counter usually still works, even if staff first point you to the code.

The phone as a fare card

In both apps, under Transport or chuxing (出行), you'll find a chengchema (乘车码), a ride code that turns the phone into a metro and bus card in a growing number of cities. Each code works for one city only, so you pick the city when you turn it on. At the gate, hold the code face-down over the reader, a small glass window near the card pad. Scan again on the way out. The fare is worked out from the trip and charged to your linked card afterward. On buses, the reader sits beside the driver.

Not every city or line accepts every app's code, and foreign-registered accounts have gained access at different times in different places. Look up the city in the app's transport section before you rely on it, and keep a fallback: the station ticket machines, which take cash and often QR payment too. Shanghai also has its own metro app, Metro Daduhui (大都会), which many local riders use alongside the Alipay code.

Shared bikes work the same way. The blue Hello bikes (哈啰, Haluo) and yellow Meituan bikes (美团) lined up along the pavement carry a code on the handlebar or rear mudguard. Scan it from inside Alipay and the lock clicks open. A ride ends when you lock the bike inside a parking zone marked on the in-app map. Leaving it outside a zone can add a charge, and the app warns you before you lock.

Getting set up, and the mistake to make only once

Set up both apps at home, not in the arrivals hall. Register with your own phone number, verify your identity by photographing your passport in the app, and link a foreign Visa or Mastercard. The app lists which cards it accepts. Larger payments on a foreign card may show a service-fee line on the confirmation screen, so read that screen before you approve. The current fee levels and thresholds are in each app's help pages, and your own bank may add a foreign-transaction charge. Some features, such as deposit-free rentals and certain mini-programs, check for Chinese ID and may turn a foreign account away.

Hotels usually take a deposit, yajin (押金), at check-in, often by scanning your pay code as a pre-authorisation, yushouquan (预授权), which is released at checkout. How fast that hold disappears from your card depends on your bank. Refunds, tuikuan (退款), go back the way the money came, and on a foreign card that can take several days. Carry some cash in small notes as well. Cash is legal tender, but a fruit seller may not have change for a large note.

The mistake to make only once is screenshotting your pay code to save time at the till. The fukuanma refreshes itself every short while, so a screenshot fails at the scanner. While a code is live, anyone who scans it can take a payment. Open it fresh at the counter, angle it away from the queue behind you, and close it as soon as the scanner beeps.