e-CNY hard wallets now pay fares at every metro station and on nearly every bus route in Shenzhen. The tap-to-ride service (一碰通行) went live on November 3, the city government’s news account Shenzhen Release (深圳发布) said, covering all 17 metro lines, 432 stations and close to 900 bus routes.
A hard wallet (硬钱包) loads an e-CNY wallet onto an IC card, phone, SIM card or wearable device. The rider taps it at the gate or bus reader with no app and no network connection. Eight e-CNY operators issue them: Agricultural Bank of China, ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Postal Savings Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Industrial Bank. Shenzhen Tong (深圳通), the city’s transit card company, upgraded metro and bus ticketing with Shenzhen Metro Group and Shenzhen Bus Group, guided by the PBOC Digital Currency Institute, the PBOC Shenzhen branch and the city’s financial work office.
Shenzhen first accepted e-CNY for fares in July 2021, through QR codes in the Shenzhen Tong app. A later pilot by Bank of China’s Shenzhen branch, Shenzhen Metro and gate maker GRG Intelligent Technology (运通智能) let invited users tap hard wallets at four stations on Line 8.
- 17 metro lines and 432 stations
- Close to 900 bus routes
- Eight banks issuing hard wallets
Why it matters: Transit fares are small, frequent payments, and in Shenzhen the hard wallet now competes at the gate with Alipay and WeChat Pay QR codes and with the Shenzhen Tong card. A wallet that needs no phone and no network gives foreign visitors and riders without smartphones a way to pay; GRG said its Line 8 pilot was built partly for foreign visitors. The test is whether banks can get hard wallets into enough pockets for fare data to show real use.
Sources: 深圳发布 Shenzhen Release, via 21世纪经济报道 21st Century Business Herald and 新浪财经 Sina Finance, November 3, 2026; 澎湃新闻 The Paper, November 3, 2026; 深圳特区报 Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, via the Shenzhen government portal, July 23, 2021; 运通智能 GRG Intelligent Technology (Chinese-language sources, translated)
Image: LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
