You can already feel the pain in CN. Almost everyone is using WeChat in tier 1 cities. WeChat is like WhatsApp/FB-Chat but with integrated Paypal-clone. It has also an integrated Didi app (Uber/taxi hailing).
You feel the pain if you don't have a local bank account and therefor cannot use the WeChat wallet. So you cannot hail a Taxi with Didi, you have to do it the old way by waving the hand. It's already really a pain, if you don't look like a local but being a visitor from the west. I heard there are restaurants that accept no cash anymore. It's also not so great that bank debit cards now have some regional lock, you have to deactivate it before you travel abroad, otherwise you cannot use ATMs there. Been there, learned it the hard way, good I had 300 USD in cash with me to survive 3 days until the debit card region locked got processed around the globe to enable ATM cash deposit. Let's hope current kind of paper cash stays around and will be a legal and common payment method for a long time to come.
You feel the pain if you don't have a local bank account and therefor cannot use the WeChat wallet. So you cannot hail a Taxi with Didi, you have to do it the old way by waving the hand. It's already really a pain, if you don't look like a local but being a visitor from the west. I heard there are restaurants that accept no cash anymore. It's also not so great that bank debit cards now have some regional lock, you have to deactivate it before you travel abroad, otherwise you cannot use ATMs there. Been there, learned it the hard way, good I had 300 USD in cash with me to survive 3 days until the debit card region locked got processed around the globe to enable ATM cash deposit. Let's hope current kind of paper cash stays around and will be a legal and common payment method for a long time to come.