Beijing subway has fully integrated China's central bank digital currency with its payment ecosystem

China • August 4, 2021, 7:48AM EDT
The Block

The subway system in Beijing has extended its trial of China's central bank digital currency to a full integration with its payment ecosystem.

According to the Beijing railway's announcement on Tuesday, China's digital yuan, also known as the e-CNY, is now fully supported as a payment or balance top-up option across 428 subway stations in 24 lines. 

It is a major upgrade to the subway system's trial rolled out in June where the e-CNY was initially only supported for the Yitongxing mobile app. With the latest upgrade, the e-CNY is practically launched for Beijing subway's 10 million daily riders whether they need to top up their physical transportation cards, buy a single-trip ticket online or offline, or scanning their Yitongxing mobile app.

A review video shot by a local business media outlet on Tuesday shows that the ticket vending terminals inside a subway station in Beijing now has the e-CNY payment option next to cash, WeChat Pay or AliPay for when users choose to buy a single-trip ticket or a transportation card.

Opting for the e-CNY payment method, users will need to open their e-CNY wallets to scan the payment QR codes displayed on the terminal screen. 

To top up the balance of their transportation cards, riders will need to go through a similar process by choosing the e-CNY payment option and scan the payment QR codes with their e-CNY wallets. 

In addition to automated ticket machines, all staffed service counters will also allow riders to top up their cards or buy tickets using their e-CNY wallets.

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Wolfie joined The Block’s news team in 2020 and switched to the research side in 2021 to focus on crypto mining analysis. Prior to The Block, he had been a journalist at CoinDesk for three years. Wolfie has a background in financial journalism.