Resistance is futile - just scan me in to the digital revolution
"I never do."
The pause that followed lent the declaration gravity, with a hint of warning. It was as if I asked a Mormon missionary if he ever indulged in a sly tipple. "You mean you NEVER do?" I pressed on. I was emboldened by the fact that he's my best friend and one of us had to blink first. "No, I don't carry money." Settled. With phone at the ready, cash is excess baggage.
He then conjured an opened Huawei from nowhere and took me on a tour of his digital finances. We visited WeChat Pay and Alipay - my first peek under the hood of China's cashless juggernaut. It was giddying. My head was in the clouds, and so were my feet - just in front of the toilets at 9,000 meters. Mr 48C shuffled between screens, with the cogs and levers of China's brave new world bearing their burden in silence - or at least the occasional flushes behind us muffled any noisier gear changes.
