(Photo/Chinanews.com)

China’s mobile payment giants WeChat Pay and Alipay have established partnerships with international payment companies, so users can now use international bank cards with ease via the apps, ThePaper.cn reported on Nov. 6.

WeChat Pay has been connected with foreign credit cards as its parent company Tencent recently established partnerships with international payment companies, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Global Network (Diners Club included) and JCB.

This means clients of the abovementioned companies can now pay in China directly via WeChat Pay for such services as train tickets, taxi services, buying commodities via one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, JD.com, or booking travel services via Ctrip, an online travel agency.

Alipay, the main rival of WeChat Pay in China, launched its international version, which enables foreign tourists to register with their phone numbers and connect their Alipay accounts with a Bank of Shanghai card for payment.

They can then transfer money from their foreign debit or credit cards to the Chinese card. The Shanghai bank has set a transfer limit of 2,000 yuan.

U.S. digital payment company Visa Inc said that the partnership builds an environment where Visa cardholders will be able to use their Visa card in China at the millions of places where WeChat Pay is accepted.