ALIPAY+, Ant International’s cross-border mobile payment platform, has launched China’s first cross-border e‑wallet tax‑refund service in Shenzhen.

The pilot program, unveiled Monday and currently only available to visitors from Hong Kong, enables VAT refunds in Hong Kong dollars to be directly transferred into participants’ AlipayHK digital wallets.

After shopping at a designated tax‑refund store in Shenzhen, Hong Kong travelers must complete several steps to participate: obtain a refund form from the store, complete a brief pre‑authorization at the refund counter, and then scan an Alipay+ QR code at the counter to generate a refund code. Upon completion, the refund will be credited within seconds.

To celebrate the launch, AlipayHK is offering exclusive payment discounts for Hong Kong users at popular shopping areas, including the COCO Park shopping mall in downtown Futian District.

Ant International, the global arm and subsidiary of Ant Group, said the service will expand later this year to include South Korea’s KakaoPay and the Philippines’ GCash, and it will ultimately cover all Alipay+ partner wallets — a move expected to benefit tens of millions of inbound tourists.

Officials highlighted the service’s consumer‑friendly and ecosystem benefits. Dai Wenzhong, director of the Second Taxation Branch of the Shenzhen Tax Service, said Alipay+ has already enabled tourists from 13 countries and regions to pay in Shenzhen with their home e‑wallets.

“This new service will make tax refunds easier,” he said, noting the pilot program’s focus on Hong Kong visitors — Shenzhen’s largest inbound group — and potential to encourage additional spending by cross‑border shoppers.

A spokesperson for the Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank of China said the e‑wallet refund service delivers a faster, smoother shopping and refund experience for visitors while further enriching Shenzhen’s cross‑border financial ecosystem.

Shenzhen is positioning itself as China’s benchmark city for departure tax refunds, with more than 1,500 departure tax‑refund stores and the country’s largest number of tax‑refund ports.

Ant International introduced Alipay+ in 2020 to allow international visitors to use apps from their home countries to make payments in China by scanning Alipay QR codes and in other countries via local partners.

Alipay is Ant Group’s largely domestically focused platform.

(Li Jing)