(Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)
Beijing becomes the first city on the Chinese mainland to accept contactless payment on rail transit for foreign Mastercard and Visa cardholders.
Starting Friday, international visitors can use foreign-issued Mastercard and Visa cards to ride the city’s entire rail transit network, and automatically pay under the same billing rules as local residents.
Beijing has upgraded more than 20,000 pieces of equipment at subway stations across its rail transit network to facilitate the new payment initiative, which complements existing payment methods such as UnionPay cards and QR codes, to further improve international visitors’ rail transit experience, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport announced at the ongoing China International Fair for Trade in Services 2024.
The service is available at all gates in 490 stations of 27 metro lines (including two airport lines, Xijiao Line and Yizhuang T1 Line), covering a total length of 836 km. In addition, the suburban railway line S2 is also part of this program.
