Guangzhou buses to accept digital yuan payments

Guangzhou authorities have given public transit passengers the option to pay fares with the digital yuan (e-CNY). local media report this.

The pilot project testing the e-CNY is in operation on 10 bus routes, including a tourist line. Users are required to download the app and pay through a wallet by scanning a QR code inside the vehicle.

The authorities in Ningbo in the northeast of Zhejiang province announced the addition of e-CNY fare payment at 125 metro stations. The city became the ninth in China to launch a digital yuan experiment in the subway.

In the summer of 2021, a similar initiative was implemented in Beijing and Suzhou.

China’s authorities are also testing the e-CNY as part of red envelope distributions. In October 2020, there was the first mass experiment in Shenzhen. In the second phase, local residents completed almost 140,000 transactions worth 18.22 million yuan (~$2.8 million).

A pilot project distributing 100,000 ‘red envelopes’ also took place in Suzhou. Beijing and Shanghai announced plans to support testing of the e-CNY.

In July 2021, the authorities in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, tested the digital yuan with programmed use cases.

In April 2022, the former head of the People’s Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan said that the digital yuan is intended for the public and merchants, not to replace SWIFT or turn currency into a weapon.

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