Online transaction platforms help build bridges of friendship between nations

Bringing home "Made in Germany" gadgets has been a ritual among Chinese tourists who show reverence for high quality.

But when it comes to Chinese innovations that impress average German counterparts, Thomas Derksen would vote for mobile payments.

The 31-year-old German is better known in China as Afu, an avatar he picked meaning fortune or luck. He is so drawn to the cashless lifestyle in China that he went so far as to write a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, proposing the adoption of mobile payment in his own country.