BEIJING – Tickets at tourist sites like the Forbidden City in Beijing, bus rides in Guangzhou, and drinks at Starbucks. Singapore travellers to China now have the option of linking their local bank accounts to a digital yuan app for such purchases.

From December, customers of the Singapore branches of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Bank of China (BOC) can top up their e-CNY wallets from their Singapore bank accounts.

The launch of this pilot scheme was announced at the annual Singapore-China talks, held under the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) in Chongqing on Dec 15.

Here is a guide to using e-CNY in China.

It is a digital currency issued by the People’s Bank of China. It was piloted in 2019, making China the first major economy to extensively test and develop a central bank digital currency.

Even before the pilot announced on Dec 15 for ICBC and BOC customers, foreigners have been able to use e-CNY in other scenarios. In 2022, it was piloted for athletes and tourists at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The e-CNY app can be downloaded from the Google Play or Apple App stores, and new accounts set up by registering a mobile number.

Foreigners do not need to scan their passports or use other forms of real-name authentication to set up an account – essentially allowing users to be anonymous.

However, such users have a single payment limit of 2,000 yuan (S$365) and a daily payment limit of 5,000 yuan.

An the other end of the spectrum, users verified with Chinese residence identification documents are allowed single payments of up to 20,000 yuan.

The digital wallet can be topped up with an international credit card like a Mastercard or Visa card.

Foreigners can also reload their e-CNY wallets using cash at physical bank service outlets of 10 authorised financial institutions in China, including ICBC and BO...