You can now use Apple Pay to pay for subway, bus rides in Shanghai and Beijing!

iPhone users, rejoice!

On March 30th, both the Shanghai and Beijing public transportation systems began accepting Apple Pay for the first time.

If you want to take advantage of this new payment option through your iPhone, you need to have:

An iPhone 6 or newer, with password, Face ID, or Touch ID.

iOS 11.3 or higher.

An iCloud account.

A credit card or debit card in your Apple Pay.

If you instead want to use your Apple Watch, then you need:

An Apple Watch Series 1, Apple Watch Series 2 or newer.

WatchOS 4.3 or higher.

An iCloud account.

A credit card or debit card in your Apple Pay.

To add a metro card in your iPhone or Apple Watch:

Open the Wallet app and click the “+” button.

2. Click “Continue” (接续).

3. Choose the metro card you want to add. Shanghai (上海) or Beijing (北京).

4. You can top up your card here. Note that you will be charged a 20 yuan deposit that will be returned to you when you cancel the card.

5. Or you can transfer the funds from your physical metro card.

6. Type in the last four digits of the number on your physical card.

7. Place your phone on your card and the funds will be transferred into the virtual card.

You can also watch this short tutorial video:

Now, you can swipe your iPhone or Apple Watch to get into the metro. Note that you can only do this at the turnstiles that are marked red.

You can also use it on buses, ferries, and the maglev.

Shanghaiist gave this latest technology a try today. It took several seconds to go through the metro, but with the bus it worked perfectly fine and fast.

This January, Shanghai’s subway network started accepting mobile app payments through the app “Metro Daduhi” (Metro大都会). For the first time, subway turnstiles with QR code scanners were installed in the city, allowing metro riders to pay with their phones through Unionpay or Alipay.

However, during the first few days after this new payment method was rolled out, some stations saw extremely long lines of commuters during rush hour as people waited to try out this new system for the first time.