SHENZHEN, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Tencent has announced a landmark integration of its extensive payment network with PayPal, enabling U.S. visitors to pay like locals in China via QR codes, a move to further improve travel convenience.
The partnership, unveiled Wednesday at the 20th Shenzhen International Financial Expo, connects Tencent's cross-border payments platform TenPay Global with PayPal World, a global platform connecting the world's largest payment systems and digital wallets.
Tencent's WeChat, which serves as a multifunctional app beyond just social media and messaging, offers digital payment services known as Weixin Pay in the Chinese mainland, while overseas versions are often referred to as WeChat Pay. Powered by this new partnership, the PayPal QR-code payment service will allow travelers to make payments by scanning or being scanned at Weixin Pay merchants across the Chinese mainland. It will be initially open to U.S.-based PayPal users, with other international markets to follow.
The tie-up is the most prominent result of a unified cross-border QR code gateway developed under the Chinese central bank's guidance and led by the Payment & Clearing Association of China, which went into trial operation in July 2025, according to Dong Ximiao, chief economist at Merchants Union Consumer Finance Company Limited.
The infrastructure replaced a fragmented model in which foreign wallets had to negotiate separate technical connections with domestic platforms, shifting instead to a single-point access architecture with standardized interfaces, a change Dong said dramatically lowers costs for future integrations.
Tencent pioneered the "Easy Pay with Your Home Wallets" model in 2018 with WeChat Pay HK, a Hong Kong dollar-denominated e-wallet for Hong Kong residents. Under this framework, overseas users can pay with their existing local e-wallets at Chinese mainland retailers without downloading any new app. To date, integration with 36 international wallets has gone live.
"China is home to one of the world's most sophisticated digital payment ecosystems, and for international travelers, the ability to pay seamlessly is integral to the experience of being here," said Otto Williams, senior vice president of PayPal World. "We are committed to ensuring that international visitor can enjoy frictionless payments."
The announcement comes amid a surge in foreign visitor spending via Weixin Pay. Weixin Pay data shows that from January to April of this year, the number of transactions made by foreign travelers in China using Weixin Pay linked to international bank cards rose by nearly 80 percent year on year, as China has expanded its visa-free travel policies.
Amid Weixin Pay's latest round of upgrades for international cardholders, first-time users who link an international bank card to WeChat will enjoy a waiver on international card processing fees for 90 consecutive calendar days starting from their first transaction, covering daily spending of up to 1,000 yuan (about 146 U.S. dollars).
"We hope tangible benefits and a friendlier experience will reflect the warmth of a host, and lower the cost for our international friends to pay while in China," said Daniel Hong, vice president of Tencent Financial Technology.
In addition, Weixin Pay has expanded its in-app payment guidance to 16 languages, including English, Korean, Thai, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, covering all major APEC economies, so that international visitors can access native-language QR code payment guidance directly within Weixin Pay, significantly lowering the barrier to cross-border payments.
Tencent has also set up offline service desks at key locations including airports, ports of entry, hotels and key commercial districts. Coupled with 24/7 multilingual online support, these efforts provide full-service coverage across all major touchpoints of the traveler's journey.
With Shenzhen set to host the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in November 2026, the city is expected to welcome delegates and visitors from across the world, making the accessibility of everyday services including digital payments a practical task for local authorities.
Tencent's latest initiatives are explicitly framed around the APEC calendar. The Shenzhen-based company said it is continuing to onboard e-wallets from APEC economies onto its network, while its processing fee waiver program will run through the end of 2026, spanning the full APEC host year.
Hong said Tencent aims to build Shenzhen's Qianhai area into a showcase for smart payment infrastructure, contributing fintech expertise to the success of APEC 2026.
In another move, Hong disclosed that TenPay Global has partnered with domestic tax refund institutions in China to make departure tax refund services faster and simpler, starting with WeChat Pay HK in Shenzhen.
Once the service goes live, users of overseas e-wallets will be able to opt to have their tax refunds credited directly back to their preferred home e-wallets, with funds arriving within seconds. The service is set to expand nationwide and eventually extend to e-wallets from more APEC economies.
The upgrade would complete a smooth end-to-end payments journey for foreign visitors: from a first QR code scan on arrival to a refund credited to their home wallet at departure, Hong said. ■
