China
ChinaMoney
Why a foreign card is the hard way to pay here.
Do you need cash in China?
Rarely — but a card on its own is not the answer either. Almost everything runs through payment apps, and a foreign card has to be linked to one of them first.
Where can I get cash with a foreign card?
At ATMs carrying your card network's logo. UnionPay is accepted broadly; Visa and Mastercard work on a narrower set of machines.
Can you haggle over prices?
Not where a price tag hangs — marked prices are a legal requirement, and the tag is a ceiling. Markets without tags are a different world.
Can a shop refuse my cash?
No — refusing renminbi cash is illegal, and the central bank fines merchants for it. In the world's most app-paid economy, your paper money is still legal tender.