The Central Bank of China (PBoC) has published a guide making the digital yuan, its central bank digital currency or CBDC, available to tourists visiting the country.
The digital currency will be available through its mobile application for iOS and Android devices called “e-CNY”, explains the PBoC in the “Guide to digital payment in RMB for people abroad in China”. Tourists will be able to open a digital yuan wallet without having to have a bank account in China and link their international Visa and Mastercard cards to make payments with the digital currency. Wallet registration is available with phone numbers in more than 210 countries and territories, according to the PBoC.
With the travel wallet, tourists will be able to process payments with the digital yuan both in stores and online. Likewise, they can manage any residual funds in the wallet back to their bank accounts and even top up the wallet with cash, both yuan and foreign currencies. In addition, users will also have the option to request cards and physical devices to make payments directly.
International visitors will have the option to create an “anonymous wallet” without needing to register a bank account or provide identification documents. You just have to add your Visa or Mastercard card and you will have a maximum of 2,000 yuan per transaction and a total of 5,000 yuan daily limit.
China made the digital yuan available to foreigners for the first time in 2022, as part of an experiment during the Winter Olympics in Beijing, in a bid to break Visa’s monopoly. In December 2023, a similar initiative to facilitate digital yuan payments for international visitors was launched in Singapore, following a partnership between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the PBoC. The easing of payment barriers for foreigners appears to be a broader plan by China to encourage tourism.