No cash? No problem

Foreigners in China laud the country's world-leading mobile payment industry and say apps have made life a lot more convenient than in their home nations

Thomas Derksen, a social media star known for posting fun videos that satirizes everyday life in Shanghai, was recently given a challenge of spending a day in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, without any cash or credit cards on hand.

The German expatriate, who lives in Shanghai, admitted that it was something he could not imagine doing back home in Europe, but he breezed through the challenge using only his smartphone, which was installed with Alipay, the third-party payment app.