Not even big cards like Visa or Mastercard work everywhere.
Instead you need an app installed on your phone (alipay or wechat), where you transfer cash into the app in advance. All with Chinese as the only language. (From what i heard, there now is a tourist-version of alipay in English. Last time i tried it was mostly Chinese)
Your ability to make purchases turned off, with no other means to transact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System
Not even big cards like Visa or Mastercard work everywhere.
Instead you need an app installed on your phone (alipay or wechat), where you transfer cash into the app in advance. All with Chinese as the only language. (From what i heard, there now is a tourist-version of alipay in English. Last time i tried it was mostly Chinese)
honestly it was pretty intuitive even when navigating all in chinese
as in it is very difficult to find anyone willing to transact in cash for any transaction whatsoever in most chinese cities