We had a 72 hour layover visa en route to another country, stayed in Shanghai, paid for everything with normal credit cards, no problems. WeChat is only one opt

We had a 72 hour layover visa en route to another country, stayed in Shanghai, paid for everything with normal credit cards, no problems. WeChat is only one option, but credit cards are another for foreign travelers. We mostly only did shopping at restaurants, hotels and larger grocery stores, but I suspect that is what most tourists do. We had $100 USD in local currency as a backup but never used it. This quarter we traveled internationally for 9 days to central america, took out $70 USD in local currency, paid for everything with credit cards except one tank of gas which was about $36. I don't see retailers dropping credit card payment options in the short term.