(Yicai) Sept. 22 -- Foreign visitors to the Hangzhou Asian Games, which open tomorrow, will find it easier to make payments following efforts by China UnionPay and third-party payment service providers such as Alipay.

Alipay, China’s biggest third-party mobile payment platform run by fintech giant Ant Group, now allows visitors to link foreign bank cards such as those issued by Visa, Mastercard, and JCB.

Digital wallets are used by 175 million consumers in Southeast Asia and East Asia, and Alipay also accepts the 10 overseas digital wallets most commonly used in Asia, such as Malaysia’s Touch'n Go eWallet, South Korea’s Toss Pay, and Thailand’s TrueMoney. By using Alipay+, users of overseas bank card users and digital wallets can make payments by scanning a QR code in China.

Alipay’s merchant network has been prepared so that people can pay for tickets to the Asian Games, as well as taxies, city buses, tickets to tourist attractions, and in retail stores, Hangzhou-based Ant told Yicai.

Zhejiang province, of which Hangzhou is the capital, has also upgraded 25,400 ATMs to allow cash withdrawals using major foreign bank cards. And in 48,000 stores, point of service machines now accept the cards, according to the provincial branch of the People’s Bank of China.

Stores in the Asian Games’ 324 venues have completed the processes needed for the use of foreign bank cards, mobile payments, and digital yuan, and 121 hotels and 55 hospitals designated for the sports competition have also opened up their payment systems, the PBOC branch said.

The number of daily active overseas users of Alipay Global in China in the first half of this month jumped 54 percent from last month, per Ant’s statistics, with visitors arriving in advance of the Asian Games. Alipay also said its customer service line for the Games provides services in seven languages.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Tom Litting