Tencent launched TenPayGo on Thursday, a standalone payment app built by the WeChat Pay team for people visiting China. It works at every merchant that takes WeChat Pay, which is tens of millions of shops, restaurants and ticket counters, and you pay with the card or wallet you already have at home.
You Sign Up With An Email, Not A Chinese Phone Number
That’s the part that matters most for travellers. Setting up Chinese payment apps usually requires a local mobile number, which visitors don’t have and can’t easily get. TenPayGo registration takes an email address instead, then you link a card or wallet and start scanning QR codes.
Cards from seven international networks work, Visa and Mastercard included, along with Apple Pay. Tencent says close to 60 overseas e-wallets will be connected by the end of the year, with Singapore’s Starryblu among the first batch. Whatever you link is what gets charged each time you spend, so there’s no topping up a balance in advance.
It Does More Than Payments
The app carries a few travel tools built on Tencent’s AI. Point your camera at a menu and it translates. Circle an object on screen and it’ll tell you what you’re looking at, which is aimed at shops and market stalls.
In Shenzhen it generates a QR code for buses and the metro, so no transit card and no local number needed there either. Departure tax refunds are coming through partnerships with local banks, and Shenzhen is first for that too.
Shenzhen Is Hosting APEC In November
The timing isn’t a coincidence. Shenzhen is Tencent’s home city and it hosts the APEC leaders’ meeting in November, which means a large number of foreign visitors arriving at once.
There’s commercial pressure behind it as well. WeChat Pay transactions made in China on overseas accounts rose more than 80% in both volume and value over the first eight months of 2026, and Alipay has been letting tourists link foreign cards for a while now. TenPayGo is available on the App Store and Google Play if you’re heading over.
