A foreign tourist taps an American Express card to pass through a subway turnstile in Beijing.

Beijing subway becomes world’s first with full network coverage of 5 major card schemes

(Global Times) -- Starting Sunday, contactless tap-and-go access and ticket purchase functions for overseas-issued JCB cards and American Express cards have been equipped with Beijing’s urban subway system. This marks Beijing as the world’s first subway system with network-wide covering of the five major card schemes.
Starting this Sunday, Beijing’s subway system began to support contactless tap-and-go transit, ticket purchases, and fare adjustments using both overseas-issued JCB cards and American Express cards to further streamline payment convenience and elevate service quality for inbound tourism, China National Radio (CNR) reported on Monday.
This service upgrade covers all 29 operational lines across the entire network in Beijing, including two airport lines, 523 stations, and suburban subway lines, enabling tap-and-go access at all fare gates, across all sections, CNR reported.
Passengers can simply tap their cards on the turnstile’s sensor for instant access, without the need to buy tickets ahead of time or download an app, according to the report.
In addition to using their own cards for transit, card owners can also use self-service ticket vending machines to purchase single-journey tickets for multiple companions.
“We upgraded the ticket vending machine software to support tap-and-go purchases with these new card types without changing the hardware,” said Zhang Li, chief expert at Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co., Ltd.
In addition to supporting foreign cards for tap-and-go access, Beijing rail transport will provide foreign passengers with a fully integrated, convenient payment environment covering all scenarios, Zhang added.
If encountering over-distance or overtime situations while using single-journey tickets, foreign passengers can use overseas-issued bank cards to adjust fares at self-service machines, which reduces communication barriers and enhances travel convenience, according to the report.
After experiencing using an American Express card to take the subway in Caoqiao Station of Beijing Daxing Airport Line on Sunday afternoon, Nick, a tourist from Canada, praised the upgrade as “really convenient,” CNR reported.
“This marks another major improvement in Beijing’s transportation sector for payment convenience following the support for Mastercard and Visa in September 2024,” Zhang noted.
With this advancement, Beijing subway has become the world’s first subway system to offer network-wide payment services covering the five major card schemes, namely, UnionPay, Mastercard, Visa, JCB, and American Express, the report said.
Since the debut of Chinese mainland’s first overseas-issued bank card tap-and-go service on September 13, 2024, Beijing’s urban subway system has enabled effective use of bank cards from over 130 countries and regions with zero complaints, according to the report.

(Latest Update June 17, 2025)