An East Marvel guide. Updated November 2026.
Most of a day in China is paid by phone. WeChat Pay and Alipay are set up in that guide, and that is where a foreign card is linked. This page is the cash you still carry, and the question of a tip.
The figures below are the ones the banks and the city government print. Your own card can be stricter. A machine can be stricter than the printed ceiling. Read the screen before you confirm.
The ATM stop
A card issued outside mainland China can take out renminbi at an ATM that shows the same logo as the card. Bank of China says its machines do this for UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB, and American Express, around the clock, for a withdrawal or a balance check. Shanghai's city government says the same for machines across the city that show the logo. A People's Bank notice for visitors in Guangxi names the same kind of withdrawal at the large state banks and prints the same ceiling.
That ceiling, on a single withdrawal, is 3,000 yuan. Bank of China prints it. Shanghai's government calls it the general cap. The Guangxi notice prints it too, and adds that your own card's limit still applies. The fee for the withdrawal is set by the bank that issued the card, not by a single national price.
A daily cap is a different number, and it is not the same at every bank. Agricultural Bank of China posts 20,000 yuan a day on its own machines for Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, and still says your issuer can set less. Another bank's screen can show a lower single amount than 3,000. If the machine refuses the card, the next step is the logo on the next machine, not a larger request.
Before you fly, ask the issuer to turn on cash withdrawals in China. A card that pays a hotel bill can still be blocked at an ATM. Take one or two withdrawals for the gaps. The phone covers the rest of the day, once it is set up.
Small notes
A 100-yuan note is a clumsy thing at a stall, a local bus, or a temple shop that still takes cash. If the machine or the counter lets you choose, take some tens and twenties with the hundreds. Hotels and large banks are the places to break a note. A street stall is the wrong place to ask for change from a hundred.
Do not carry the whole trip in cash. The pay guide's point still holds: the phone is the usual way to pay, and cash is the spare.
Restaurants, taxis, and hotels
Restaurants and taxis. Pay the figure on the bill or on the meter. Shanghai's city government says tipping is not expected in most restaurants. The same is true of a taxi. Leaving extra money often comes back, because the person taking it thinks you miscounted.
A service charge already on the bill. The same Shanghai page says consumer tax is already inside the price tag. Cafeterias and bars inside hotels, and some restaurants and bars outside them, may add a service charge of 10 to 15 percent. If that line is on the bill, do not add a second amount.
Hotels. Tipping is not expected in most hotels, on that same city page. A front desk does not have a tip line. A bellhop does not have one either. If you are pleased and you hand someone a small note, that is your own gesture. It is not the price of the room.
Guides and drivers
China's Tourism Law tells a guide and a tour leader not to ask a traveler for a tip. The same article tells them not to induce, cheat, or force a traveler into a shop or an extra paid stop. If a guide does ask, the tourism authority orders the money returned and can impose a fine of 1,000 to 10,000 yuan. A serious case can suspend or revoke the guide certificate.
The law does not set a tip you must pay. It does not put a percentage on a private car or a private guide. On an East Marvel trip the guide and the driver are inside the quote we email. That quote is the price. Nothing on the day's sheet is a tip line.
If you want to thank them at the end, that is your choice, and it is cash, handed over once, not a sum added every evening. A guide who tells you a tip is required is asking. That is the thing the law forbids.
This page is mainland China. A bill in Hong Kong is that city's own rule.
ATM caps follow the screen and the bank that issued your card. The guide rule is Articles 41 and 102 of the Tourism Law of the People's Republic of China. The note on restaurants, hotels, and a 10 to 15 percent service charge is the Shanghai city government's own FAQ. This page is travel guidance, not legal advice.
Our guides and our proposals work in English. If someone traveling with you is more at ease in Chinese, say so when you write, and we will plan for that.
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