Ti Gong

Big news, expat commuters! As of this Monday, all Shanghai Metro stations are now ready to take your overseas plastic. Yup, you can now grab your single-ride, one-day, or even three-day passes at any station's Service Center using your non-local bank cards. The city's metro operators did a little test run last month with foreign card payments at maglev stations and four airport Metro stops. Looks like it was a success!

This new payment convenience is supporting a range of card types including Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, and JCB.

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UnionPay holders, you're not left out, your domestic cards can also be used to purchase metro tickets.

In a bit of a rush to get somewhere, or just want an excuse to take the maglev? Certain stations are offering nifty ticket combos for both the Metro and the maglev train (both one way, and two way journey tickets).

Mobile payments are also an option:

For the tech-savvy, the Shanghai Metro's very own app, "Metro大都会", is also joining in with upgrades. It now supports linking up with your international cards. Got a MasterCard or a Diners Club Card? Try out the app’s slick one-click binding feature and make your life just a bit easier.

If you haven't yet downloaded the Metro大都会, you should head to the APP store to download it. It's the official metro APP of the city, and you can switch the language to English. It shows up as "Shanghai Metro DADUHUI" (which means Metropolitan in Chinese).

Already connected your foreign bank cards to Alipay, WeChat, or the UnionPay app? Smooth sailing ahead — you can use any of these to pay through "Metro大都会."

Which card types are supported？

Alipay and WeChat Pay are currently offering more options with support for five types of foreign cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Diners Club, and JCB.

UnionPay app isn’t far behind with support for Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, and JCB.

Ti Gong

Ti Gong