Alipay Tour Pass Is Discontinued: What Replaced It in 2026

Search "Alipay Tour Pass" today and you will still find guides written back in 2022 and 2023 telling you to preload a temporary wallet before your flight. That product does not exist anymore. If you read one of those posts and planned your trip around it, here is the update: Tour Pass was phased out starting in late 2023, and what replaced it is simpler, not more complicated.

Quick answer: No, Alipay Tour Pass is not available in 2026. It was phased out starting late 2023 and replaced by direct card-linking: verify your passport inside the main Alipay app and attach a foreign Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover or Diners Club card straight to your account. No deposit, no separate wallet product, no expiry date to track.

Is Alipay Tour Pass Still Available in 2026?

No. Tour Pass was a temporary prepaid wallet that foreign visitors funded through a card or Apple Pay/Google Pay in lieu of a Chinese bank account. Alipay's own legacy "Tour Pass" Information Technology Service Agreement is still archived on its site, which is a useful way to confirm the product existed and has since been superseded, but new sign-ups for it are gone. Alipay retired the model starting late 2023 in favor of letting international visitors link a foreign card directly to the same Alipay app that residents use, verified with a passport instead of a Chinese ID.

If a blog post, forum thread, or old YouTube video is telling you to top up a Tour Pass balance before you land, that advice is out of date. Here is what the switch looks like in practice:

What Replaced Tour Pass: Direct Card-Linking to the Main Alipay App

The People's Bank of China pushed Alipay and Tenpay (WeChat Pay's operator) to make foreign-card linking the default rather than a side product. Once you verify your identity with a passport scan and a live face check, you attach a Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover or Diners Club card to your regular Alipay account. From that point the app behaves exactly like it does for a local user: scan a merchant's code or show your own code, and the charge goes straight to your card in your home currency. There is no prepaid balance sitting in an app waiting to run out at the worst possible moment, and no need to calculate how much to load before you leave home.

How to Pay With Alipay in China Right Now

1. Download Alipay from the App Store or Google Play a few days before you fly. Some app functions and Google-dependent services are unreliable once you are inside mainland China, so do this on home wifi.
2. Register with your home-country phone number and confirm the SMS code.
3. Verify your identity in the account and security section: upload a clear photo of your passport's photo page, then complete a short live face scan in good light.
4. Link your card: go to the bank cards section and add a physical Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover or Diners Club card. Use the name exactly as printed on your passport, since a mismatch is the most common reason a card gets rejected.
5. Pay by scanning: open the Pay tab, scan the merchant's code or show yours, confirm the amount, and you are done in a couple of seconds.

That is the entire process. There is no separate "Tour Pass" screen to find, because it was removed along with the product.

What About TourCard and the New Nihao China App?

A second, less-known prepaid product called TourCard also exists, issued through a Bank of Shanghai and UnionPay partnership and accessed via a mini-program inside Alipay or WeChat. Unlike direct card-linking, TourCard is itself a prepaid virtual RMB card that you top up. As of 2026, TourCard's application channel inside Alipay and WeChat is being wound down, and new users increasingly cannot find the entry point at all.

Its replacement is Nihao China, an app launched by UnionPay in late 2025 aimed squarely at inbound visitors. It bundles a payments wallet (including its own Tour Wallet prepaid card feature), transit coverage across dozens of major cities, and built-in translation, and it accepts sign-up by email, Apple ID or an international phone number. If you specifically want a prepaid-card style backup rather than linking your main card everywhere, Nihao China is the current version of that idea, not TourCard.

For most tourists, though, the main Alipay app with a linked card covers everyday spending on its own. Treat Nihao China or a UnionPay-issued prepaid card as a backup for the rare merchant that will not take a linked foreign card, not as your primary setup.

Current Fees and Limits (2026)

Following a directive from the People's Bank of China effective March 2024, both Alipay and Tenpay raised their caps for foreign cardholders:

A concrete example: a ¥250 purchase costs ¥7.50 in Alipay's fee (3% of the full 250, not 3% of the 50 over the threshold), plus whatever your bank charges separately for a foreign-currency transaction. Some travelers split larger purchases into two payments under ¥200 each to dodge the fee. It works, but it means asking a cashier to run your card twice and it is not always practical, so treat it as an occasional trick rather than a routine habit.

If You Read an Old Tour Pass Guide, Here Is What Is Outdated

• "Preload your Tour Pass balance before you fly." There is no Tour Pass to preload. Link your card directly instead.
• "Tour Pass expires after 90 days, so time your top-up." Direct card-linking does not expire. Once verified, it stays linked.
• "You need Apple Pay or Google Pay to fund your wallet." You do not fund anything. Your card is charged per transaction, like any other purchase.
• "The transaction limit is $1,000." That limit was raised to $5,000 per transaction back in March 2024.
• "TourCard is the modern alternative." TourCard itself is being phased down in favor of Nihao China; do not set up a product that is already being retired.

Who This Is For

• This is for you if you read an older Alipay guide, planned to fund a Tour Pass, and want the current, correct setup instead.
• It is also for you if you are simply choosing between direct card-linking, TourCard and Nihao China and want a straight answer on which one is current.
• It is not for long-term residents, who are generally better off with a full Chinese bank account and the higher limits that come with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Alipay Tour Pass still available in 2026? No. It was phased out starting late 2023. Foreign visitors now verify their passport in the main Alipay app and link a foreign card directly, with no separate prepaid wallet product.

What replaced Alipay Tour Pass? Direct linking of a foreign Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover or Diners Club card to the main Alipay app, verified by passport. It has higher limits than Tour Pass ever did and no deposit or expiry to manage.

Is TourCard the same as Tour Pass? No, they are different products. TourCard is a separate prepaid virtual card issued through Bank of Shanghai and UnionPay. It still exists on paper in 2026 but its application channel is being wound down in favor of UnionPay's newer Nihao China app.

What are the current Alipay limits for foreign cards? $5,000 USD per single transaction and $50,000 USD per year, raised from $1,000 and $10,000 under a March 2024 directive from the People's Bank of China.

Does Alipay charge a fee on every purchase? Purchases of ¥200 or less carry no Alipay fee. Above ¥200, Alipay charges 3% on the full transaction amount, and your own card issuer may add a separate 1 to 3% foreign transaction fee on top.

For the full walkthrough of registering, verifying and linking your card, including the mistakes that get cards declined, see our Alipay for foreigners setup guide. For how Alipay fits alongside cash and physical cards more broadly, see how to pay in China.