The Importance of Using Cash in China

Whether in the past, the present, or the future, cash payments remain extremely important in every country and every place, even in today’s society where digital payment is widespread. The privacy, security, and independence from network infrastructure that cash offers are irreplaceable. Cash not only helps diversify risk, but can also serve as a way to curb spending.

Initially, cash offers a high level of privacy and security, something online payment simply cannot match. In today’s age of big data, digital payment records can easily be collected, aggregated, and potentially exploited by malicious actors. This poses a serious threat not only to personal privacy, but even to personal safety.

What’s more, cash does not depend on the internet. Since ancient times, whether people relied on barter, gold, silver, copper coins, or cash, cash-based exchange has never depended on external non-personal factors, especially electricity and network access. In such an unstable era, war could break out around us at any time. If that were to happen, large-scale network failures would be highly likely, making digital payment unusable. This concern is particularly relevant in China, where Starlink has not been introduced and communication base stations are all land-based. Under such circumstances, relying solely on online payment would create enormous inconvenience. This is especially true given China’s large population: once an emergency occurs, if everyone rushes to withdraw cash at the same time, the resulting difficulties would be immense.

Moreover, even in the absence of war, natural disasters are unavoidable. For example, severe flooding caused by torrential rain may destroy communication base stations, leading to network outages and making online payment impossible. In addition, many cities also face unavoidable earthquake risks. For example, Beijing is located at the intersection of the North China Plain fault zone, the Shanxi rift basin zone, and the Zhangjiakou–Bohai seismic tectonic belt. It is also one of the very few capital megacities in the world to have experienced earthquakes above magnitude 8 and to have a basic seismic intensity as high as VIII. Historically, Beijing has suffered multiple destructive earthquakes, and the threat that future earthquakes pose to its sustainable development should not be underestimated. When disasters strike, networks can easily fail, which poses a major challenge to online payment. Even in everyday situations, if your phone runs out of battery, is lost, or is damaged while you are out, and you are not carrying any cash, the payment risk can become substantial. Therefore, the importance of carrying cash, keeping cash at home, and maintaining the habit of paying with cash is beyond question.

In addition, with telecom and online fraud now so rampant, banks have adopted increasingly strict risk-control measures, and it is not uncommon for bank accounts to be suddenly flagged or restricted. For this reason, aside from using multiple banks to diversify risk, cash payment is also a sensible option.

Finally, paying with cash can also have the unexpected benefit of helping one save money. Based on my own experience over the past few weeks, this effect does not come from the commonly repeated claim that cash makes people “feel” their spending more vividly. Rather, it comes from the fact that cash payments are more cumbersome than digital ones, which makes me pause before each purchase and think about whether the expense is truly necessary. In this way, cash can significantly curb impulse spending and ultimately help reduce unnecessary expenses.

I am also grateful for the fact that under Chinese law, refusing to accept cash is illegal. This made my experiment with cash payments over the past few weeks go very smoothly. Almost every merchant had enough small change on hand, and I did not encounter any case in which cash was refused or change could not be given. In conclusion, I hope everyone can remain prepared even in peaceful times, carry cash when going out, keep cash at home, and maintain the habit of paying with cash.

The cover image of this article was taken on a sightseeing cruise in Lucerne, Switzerland.