This City Was Just Named the ‘Smartest’ in China

A report on the cashless society ranks Beijing as the “smartest” city in China. The report was a combined effort by tech firm Tencent, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University and the French market research firm Ipsos, Xinhua reports.

The report identified the “smartest” cities by measuring several different characteristics, including transport, education, shopping and food delivery. It surveyed 324 Chinese cities and over 6,500 residents on their use of mobile payment systems. Payments for a range of different goods and services, including takeaway food, restaurant dining, telecommunications and transport were included in the study.

Overall, Beijing topped the list as the most “cashless” city. The capital was followed by Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Of those questioned, 52 percent used cash for about 20 percent of their monthly expenditures. Moreover, four in 10 have less than RMB100 (USD15) in cash when heading out. Also, an astonishing 84 percent were “comfortable” living with just their mobile phones for a week and not holding any money.

Undoubtedly, the world is progressing towards cashless or electronic payments. Mastercard has calculated that out of the global cash usage, USD8.3 trillion of yearly consumer purchases made in the informal economy. As much as USD1.5 trillion was in illegal purchases, suggesting that high cash usage is linked to corruption and inherent challenges in doing business, according to South China Morning Post.