Visitors arrive believing two things about paying in China. Both are wrong. The first is that cash is finished. It isn’t. The central bank checked about 94,000 businesses and reported in July 2024 that 99.3 percent took cash.
Cash taken at 99.3 percent of about 94,000 businesses, People’s Bank of China (中国人民银行) figures, China National Radio (央广网), 27 July 2024, tier 2. https://china.cnr.cn/gdgg/20240727/t20240727_526818534.shtml
The second is that an Alipay (支付宝) foreign card either works in China or it doesn’t. Mostly it does. The catch is the price, which changes at RMB 200. On Moganshan the gate ticket and the shuttle sit under that line. The room usually sits above it.
Moganshan (莫干山) is a mountain in Deqing County (德清县), Huzhou (湖州), Zhejiang (浙江), about 60 km north of Hangzhou and 200 to 240 km from Shanghai. Moganshan Road in Shanghai, the M50 art district, is a different place. Setting up the apps before you fly is in money and payments. This page is about spending once you are here.
Foreign entries to China reached 22.914 million in the first half of 2026, up 20.4 percent. In August the People’s Daily overseas edition listed Moganshan among their summer escapes.
Foreign entries to China, first half of 2026, National Immigration Administration (国家移民管理局) figures in People’s Daily Overseas Edition (人民日报海外版), via Sina Finance, 11 August 2026, tier 2. https://finance.sina.cn/2026-08-11/detail-inimwyqt7674173.d.html
What things cost against the RMB 200 line
| What | Price in the dated record | Year of the figure | Foreign card fee in the app |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gate ticket at the window | RMB 80 | 2023 | None |
| Gate ticket bought the day before | RMB 70 | 2023 | None |
| Transfer shuttle up and back | RMB 35 a person | 2023 | None |
| A room, worked example only | RMB 600 | None, illustrative | RMB 18 |
Gate ticket and transfer shuttle prices, Huzhou Bendibao (湖州本地宝), 21 September 2023, tier 3. http://huzhou.bendibao.com/tour/2021123/3560.shtm
The ticket price itself is disputed, and tickets and entry prints the disagreement. Every figure in it sits under RMB 200. The shuttle is explained in the shuttle system.
The only dated report on the lockers at Deqing station, from 2018, says they took WeChat or Alipay. It gives no price.
Deqing station lockers paid by WeChat or Alipay scan, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 9 July 2018, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/201807/t20180709_7732143.shtml
The RMB 200 rule on an Alipay foreign card in China
Tenpay (财付通), which runs WeChat Pay (微信支付), set the rule out in a notice dated 15 January 2026. A payment of RMB 200 or less on a card issued outside China carries no foreign card fee. Above RMB 200 the fee is 3 percent of the whole payment, not of the part above the line. A refund returns the fee in proportion.
Foreign card fee rule, Tenpay (财付通支付科技有限公司), 15 January 2026, tier 1. https://posts.tenpay.com/posts/9e70c66564910e6002958e997eabb18b.html
Alipay launched its foreign card service in 2023 on the same terms: free to RMB 200, 3 percent above. No newer Alipay notice we could reach changes that. Its cap was RMB 3,000 a payment. WeChat Pay’s was RMB 6,000, with RMB 50,000 a month and RMB 60,000 a year.
Foreign card terms and caps at launch, Yicai (第一财经), 20 July 2023, tier 2. https://www.yicai.com/news/101814100.html
So RMB 199 costs RMB 199. At RMB 201 you pay RMB 207.03. A room at RMB 600 (real rates are in where to stay) carries RMB 18 on top; two nights at RMB 1,000 each, paid in one go, carry RMB 60. Your own bank may add a charge on top; check with it before you go.
The launch caps have since moved. In 2024 the foreign exchange regulator said the caps for foreign visitors had been raised fivefold, per payment and per year. It gave them in US currency, and no source we could reach gives today’s figure in yuan. Check the limits screen before you pay for three nights at once.
Caps raised fivefold, State Administration of Foreign Exchange (国家外汇管理局) at a central bank briefing, Red Star News (红星新闻) on Tencent News, 26 July 2024, tier 2. https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20240726A0AHJI00
Binding the card, and why it sometimes fails
Binding doesn’t always work first time. Alipay staff told Xinhua in 2024 that some cards fail because each foreign bank runs its own risk checks, and the platform connects them one at a time. The app also asks for passport details, which put some users off.
Card binding failures and passport details, Xinhua (新华网), 28 February 2024, tier 2. https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=0ff4c6c0-0783-49c3-bc41-440b38e1ed44
At launch both apps took Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and Discover, and WeChat Pay took JCB as well. Bind the card at home, then make one small payment. Binding only proves the app knows the card; a small payment is the real test. If it fails at home, there’s time to try another card.
Some visitors need neither app. People from nine places (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and Mongolia among them) can scan with the wallet they use at home. Since December 2024 eight UnionPay (银联) linked wallets from abroad can also scan WeChat Pay merchant codes.
Wallets from nine places, China National Radio (央广网), 27 July 2024, tier 2. https://china.cnr.cn/gdgg/20240727/t20240727_526818534.shtml
UnionPay linked wallets and WeChat Pay codes, Xinhua (新华网), 17 December 2024, tier 2. https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=747534e384421407cf826f93932975f2
Whether cash still works
Yes, by rule and in practice. In March 2024 the State Council made cash the fallback. Businesses in tourism, lodging and catering were told to promise in public to take cash and to keep change, and regulators were told to keep punishing refusals of banknotes and to publish the penalties.
Cash as the fallback, General Office of the State Council (国务院办公厅), 国办发〔2024〕10号, 7 March 2024, tier 1. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/202403/content_6937623.htm
The central bank’s mystery shopping shows the practice.
| Central bank check, reported July 2024 | Result |
|---|---|
| Businesses taking cash, about 94,000 checked nationwide | 99.3 percent |
| Businesses taking cash, 3,000 or so checked in 17 cities | 99.4 percent |
| Of those, holding enough change | 91.9 percent |
| Notes under RMB 20 issued, first half of 2024 | Up 30 percent on a year earlier |
Plan around the change figure. About one business in twelve was short of change when checked.
Cash and change, People’s Bank of China figures, China National Radio (央广网), 27 July 2024, tier 2. https://china.cnr.cn/gdgg/20240727/t20240727_526818534.shtml
No dated source we could reach names a cash machine on the mountain. Draw cash before you come up, and break it into small notes on the way.
Cards in a terminal: what the 2024 rules require here
Cards are the harder question. In April 2024 the central bank and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (文化和旅游部) ordered full acceptance of foreign bank cards at every 5A and 4A scenic area, every national and provincial tourist resort and every hotel of three stars or more. The same notice told those places to keep a staffed ticket window and to take cash.
Foreign card acceptance at scenic areas and resorts, People’s Bank of China and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 银发〔2024〕76号, 1 April 2024, tier 1. https://policy.mofcom.gov.cn/claw/clawContent.shtml?id=99793
Moganshan falls inside that rule twice. The ministry named Deqing’s Moganshan International Tourism Resort (莫干山国际旅游度假区) a national tourist resort in December 2020. The Yucun (庾村) scenic area at the foot of the mountain is rated 4A. (The rating is Yucun’s, not the whole mountain’s.)
National tourist resort list, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (文化和旅游部), 15 December 2020, tier 1. https://zwgk.mct.gov.cn/zfxxgkml/zykf/202012/t20201228_920220.html
Yucun scenic area rated 4A, Zhejiang Online (浙江在线), 9 June 2023, tier 2. https://zjnews.zjol.com.cn/zjnews/202306/t20230609_25838009.shtml
No Deqing source we could find says how far the resort has got. On paper, the ticket window should take both your card and your cash. A village guesthouse is neither a scenic area nor a star rated hotel, so the notice doesn’t reach its desk. Don’t count on a card there.
At the guesthouse: what to ask before you pay
Xinhua counted nearly 900 licensed guesthouses, or minsu (民宿), around Moganshan on 29 September 2026. The card rule above names none of them, and each decides how it wants to be paid.
Nearly 900 licensed guesthouses around Moganshan, Xinhua (新华网), 29 September 2026, tier 2. http://www.zj.xinhuanet.com/20260929/2bb0c09f3dc547deb5beb818d6b25693/c.html
Ask in the message that books the room. Ask how they want to be paid: app, card or cash. Ask whether the stay is paid in one go, because over RMB 200 the 3 percent applies. Then there’s the passport: find out whether the house reads it by machine. Huzhou police said in March 2025 that about 120 hotels and guesthouses across Huzhou had a reader called e境通 (e Jingtong) that takes a check in from six or seven minutes to under one.
Passport readers at about 120 hotels and guesthouses in Huzhou, Zhejiang Daily (浙江日报) on Hangzhou Net (杭州网), 25 March 2025, tier 2. https://news.hangzhou.com.cn/zjnews/content/2025-03/25/content_8959193.htm
If your bank won’t let the card bind, or you’d rather not give an app your passport, cash still covers the whole trip. It takes planning: enough for the room, plus small notes for the rest. What a minsu is explains why the answers differ from one house to the next.
Last checked 8 October 2026 by Cyril Drouin. Prices, timetables and entry rules on this mountain move without notice, so confirm anything you are booking around.
Photographs on this site are representative illustrations, not documentary images of the specific building, property or service described.
