At least a few years ago, you could set WeChat Pay / Alipay up as a tourist, but it was quite fiddly. You needed a Chinese phone number (easy to get a prepaid S

At least a few years ago, you could set WeChat Pay / Alipay up as a tourist, but it was quite fiddly. You needed a Chinese phone number (easy to get a prepaid SIM) and then someone needed to send you some money to make the wallet appear in the app, and then you could use it. You had to get friends to send you money unless you had a Chinese bank account to top it up with, but Chinese bank accounts are possible to get as a tourist, if you're willing to spend a day traipsing around different bank branches until you find one that will accept you.