Using Cash in Shanghai vs Alipay: What Works for Foreign Visitors (2026)

Cash works in Shanghai but is no longer practical; install Alipay before you fly. ¥ banknotes are legal tender and shops cannot legally refuse them, yet small merchants rarely keep change for a ¥100 bill on a ¥12 coffee, and you will lose 5 to 10 minutes per transaction explaining yourself. Vending machines, parking gates, scan-and-go convenience stores, ride-hail, and most metro entries accept only QR payment.

Alipay is the foreigner-friendly choice over WeChat Pay. Since 2023 you can link a foreign Visa or Mastercard directly during sign-up, no Chinese bank account or local SIM. Verify your passport in the Identity section once and you are set. Single transactions under ¥200 carry no foreign-card fee; over that, expect roughly 3 percent. The Alipay TourCard (a Bank of Shanghai prepaid wrapper inside Alipay) raises the per-transaction ceiling and now caps annual top-up around ¥10,000 with a 5 percent reload fee.

Keep ¥300 to ¥500 in small notes for older taxis, wet markets, and the rare backup. Do the Alipay setup at home over Wi-Fi: identity verification can stall for 24 hours if it glitches, and the Apple App Store version of Alipay is harder to install once you are inside China. Foreign credit-card terminals exist only in 4-star+ hotels and luxury malls; assume nowhere else.