China’s transition to the digital yuan is currently focused on transportation networks. In addition, drivers have been given the green light to use the token to pay for tolls on some of the nation’s busiest highways.
According to reports Shenzhen Securities Times and Sina Financethe Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation announced that toll booths on sections of various expressways in Nanjing have been upgraded to allow drivers to pay their tolls with coins.
Drivers will be able to pass through the booths and connect their mobile phones to the card readers – with fees deducted from their digital yuan wallets in real-time.
Toll booths on roads to and from the city of Nanjing have been upgraded to allow drivers to pay with coins issued by the central bank.
Nanjing was added to the pilot zone last March.
The province is also rolling out solutions on the Changsha-Taizhou Expressway section, as well as two sections of the Changsha-Jiashan Expressway. He announced that he plans to “gradually” roll out the solution to the “province-wide” highway network.
Other provinces have previously introduced similar solutions, with Shaanxi Province introducing the first digital yuan payment booth in August 2021. And as new cities and provinces enter the pilot zone, more payment points are expected to receive similar updates.
The adoption of China’s digital yuan is skyrocketing
The media also reported that Changsha Huanghua International Airport, which serves Changsha, Hunan Province, has become the first airport in the country to allow transit passengers to use the token.
Transit passengers passing through the airport will be able to use both smartphones and hard wallets to pay for goods and services while waiting for connecting flights.
The media also noted that banks are now looking for ways to use the token to pay for tuition. They also want to integrate token payment systems with “campus cards” — student cards that double as bank cards.
Earlier this month, media in China claimed that the adoption of electricity-free digital yuan payments was gaining momentum as more “supermarkets, bookstores, self-service vending machines and other outlets” accepted offline payments.
The mainland has also launched a “cross-border” digital yuan pilot project with partners in Hong Kong and Macau.
