At the 2026 Shenzhen Cultural Expo, the volunteer service U station in the south login hall of the Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Center was particularly lively.
Vietnamese merchants directly use their hometown e-wallets to scan codes to place orders, and European tourists hold digital RMB hard wallets to buy cultural and creative goods with a touch.
The staff were busy answering questions from guests, and introduced how to “bundle foreign cards inside” and use overseas e-wallets to “outsource internal use”; volunteers in red vests provided route navigation and cultural introductions in fluent English while handing over maps of the CIIE pavilions.
Shenzhen’s international, diversified and convenient payment ecology has transformed into a smooth experience at the fingertips of foreigners, building a financial bridge for global cultural exchanges at the Cultural Expo.
First experience of the Shenzhen Cultural Expo: Cross-border payment is smooth and hassle-free
For Mark, a tea set merchant from New Zealand, the first experience of the Shenzhen Cultural Expo started with a “touchless payment.”
At the payment service desk of the Volunteer Service U Station, he was originally ready to download the payment APP and bind an overseas bank card. However, under the guidance of the staff, he learned how to scan the QR code to pay with the PayZe wallet commonly used in his country.
“I don’t even need to download a new payment APP or re-bind the card, just like shopping in Auckland.” Mark exclaimed.
This “silky” payment convenience benefits from the continued expansion of payment convenience scenarios.
Tencent actively participates in the construction of the “cross-border QR code unified gateway” and relies on the gateway to further upgrade WeChat payment “outsourcing and internal use” services, and continues to promote interconnection with more than 40 overseas wallet institutions around the world.
At present, WeChat Pay’s “outsourcing and internal use” has supported 36 overseas wallets in 13 countries and regions. The overseas wallet APP can directly scan the WeChat Pay QR code to complete offline consumption.
In another corner of the venue, in front of the exclusive service window of China Construction Bank, staff patiently explained different local payment options to merchants.
“Judging from experience in previous years, the biggest problem for foreign guests is changing change and not being able to pay locally. We have simplified the process in a targeted manner this time. Whether it is cash exchange, digital renminbi, or foreign card binding, the operation is simple and easy to understand.” said a CCB staff member.
Not only that, during the CIIE, Shenzhen Newspaper Group and China Construction Bank Shenzhen Branch formally reached a strategic cooperation to jointly explore a new industry-financing model of “media + industry + finance”.
Relying on their respective resource advantages, the two parties have carried out diversified cooperation focusing on key areas such as digital culture, culture and technology, providing a new example for the linkage of state-owned capital and the collaboration of industry and finance to serve the real economy.
Service upgrade: Create a “Shenzhen sample” of payment convenience
If mobile payment represents “Shenzhen speed”, then the digital RMB hard wallet embodies the “Shenzhen temperature”.
In the Shenzhen souvenir exhibition area, Lina, a tourist from Europe and the United States, showed reporters a card she received at the airport self-service terminal.
This kind of hard wallet that does not need to rely on smartphones solves the pain point of difficulty for some foreigners who do not have mainland Chinese bank cards or mobile phone numbers to register.
“I saw the machine at the airport, and applied for one out of curiosity. I entered my mobile phone number to recharge. I just bought lychee cakes and cultural and creative ornaments, and the payment was successful with just a touch.”
The ultimate goal of payment convenience is cultural exchanges and service trade between China and foreign countries.
At the cultural trade matchmaking meeting at the Shenzhen Cultural Expo, many companies said that the level of supporting financial services directly affects the success or failure of orders.
“In the past, foreigners took a fancy to the goods and gave up because they could not pay or the settlement was too slow. Now that payment is accepted, a sense of trust has been established.” An exhibitor told reporters that the convenient payment experience allowed him to successfully sign renewal orders for old customers from Europe on the first day of the event.
From solving “how to pay” to helping “doing business”, it reflects not only the convenience level of payment services for overseas people.
In the APEC China Year, Shenzhen is taking the payment service guarantee of this CIIE as an opportunity to carry out a comprehensive “practical preview”.
The Shenzhen Branch of the People’s Bank of China stated that it will further polish and upgrade the successful experience of payment service guarantee at the Shenzhen Cultural Expo and apply it to the foreign-related payment service guarantee work for the Shenzhen APEC meeting in November.
By then, Shenzhen will show the world the “Shenzhen sample” of China’s optimized payment services with a more mature, confident and inclusive service attitude.
