Beijing Subway Now Accepting Digital Yuan Payments

Beijing Subway Accepting Digital Yuan

China’s Beijing city has extended the testing of China's central bank digital currency, dubbed the e-CNY on its entire Beijing subway system and a single Suzhou metro line.

The new service is only available for customers with a bank account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a major bank involved in China’s CBDC tests. Within the ICBC wallet, users can open the sub-wallet with the Yitongxing app, Beijing’s official city transit app.

Remarking on the initiative, a spokesperson for the Beijing rail transit network, said:

“You need to download a mobile app that is linked with your bank account to access the service."

Paying through the digital yuan work the same in Suzhou where users can combine the metro app to a digital yuan wallet where passengers can then pay for the rides by scanning the QR codes. Another option for payment includes by using vending machines.

Beijing's subway system is among the world's busiest with a daily average number of passengers of more than 10.5 million during 2018.

Beijing Major Hotspot for Digital Yuan Trial

The news comes shortly after Suzhou, a city in East China’s Jiangsu province, launched a similar digital yuan integration a day before that could be used in the latest line in the Suzhou subway system. Reportedly, Suzhou was the first city in China to start accepting e-CNY payments for subway rides.

Beijing has become a major spot for China’s digital yuan trials that includes a wide number of e-CNY integrations and related initiatives. As of mid-June, the city hosted more than 3,000 digital yuan-enabled ATMs, allowing the public to deposit and withdraw the digital currency.