Skift Take
To capture more of the continuing engine of growth that is China’s outbound market, get on the train, set up your free Wi-Fi hotspot, and warm up your WeChat account.
In the 1990s, China spent billions (of renminbi, or RMB, or U.S. dollars, either way) on its telecommunications and internet infrastructure, taking the country from a place where not every home had a landline to the largest internet market in the world in about 15 years. China currently has more mobile internet users than there are Americans — over 700 million and growing.
The telecom boom of the '90s gave way to a new rail bonanza of in the '00s. While China already had one of the world’s largest railway networks, the system has been gradually upgraded to accommodate high-speed rail, cutting the journey between Beijing and Shanghai to as little as four-and-a-half hours.
That combination of mobile technology and the ability to go mobile physically are creating a new generation of China traveler, one that is starting to have an impact on a global travel industry hungry for the growth that Chinese outbound travel has fueled. Here are some of the trends that demand is driving.
Chinese Cashless Payment Systems
Cash is no longer king in China. Where once it was renminbi (the local currency) or the highway, China has developed and adopted cashless payments systems, n
