Foreigners can now use metro app QR ticket feature
We're almost there. The saga of using your phone as a metro ticket is almost at an end. First, the Shanghai Metro app made news with a new QR-code-as-ticket feature that was only available to Chinese citizens. Then, Apple Pay became linkable to metro cards, as long as you have the latest iOS, iPhone 6 or above and your Apple Store location set to China.
Now, foreigners with verified Alipay accounts can use the Shanghai Metro app's QR ticket feature, though the app still has no English-language interface. Those foreigners who don't have the right iPhone or, for whatever reason, still don't have Alipay accounts, are still barred from linking bank cards to the metro app since that requries a Chinese citizen identification number.
If you fall into that orgy of overlapping venn diagram circles, you could wait awhile longer and maybe, just maybe, the metro app will kowtow to your needs. That will be the final chapter of this quotidien internet-of-things-and-metro-entry drama, until the turnstiles start scanning your face or heeding your call to 'Open sesame!'
Or maybe it's time to take control of your destiny and register an Alipay account.