Chinese Embrace Smartphone Swiping for Haircuts and Eels

文/帕蒂·沃爾德邁爾 譯/丁秋實 審訂/尹暉

Chinese Embrace Smartphone Swiping for Haircuts and Eels

文/帕蒂·沃爾德邁爾 譯/丁秋實 審訂/尹暉

I feel like the Queen: if I chose to do so, I could live in Shanghai without carrying anything so plebeian1plebeian平民；百姓。as cash(or even credit cards).

[2]Chinese consumers can (and do) swipe smartphones for almost everything. Breakfast, lunch and dinner?With a wave of the iPhone wand, it arrives on a motorbike, delivered often for free and usually at a discounted price, from food delivery apps such as Ele.me (meaning “are you hungry?”).Wave it again, and a taxi appears, ready to offer a discounted ride. Wave it once more, and there’s a doctor ready to diagnose any ailment2ailment輕病；小恙。by phone for only Rmb 9.9 per call.

[3]It’s called O2O, or “online to of fl ine”, and is forecast to grow to Rmb 42bn by 2017, according to Credit Suisse3瑞士瑞信銀行，原名為瑞士信貸。成立于1856年，總部設在瑞士蘇黎世，是全球第五大財團，瑞士第二大的銀行。. The marriage of online and offline will soon come even to that most traditional of venues4venue場地。, the neighbourhood wet market5wet market農貿市場，菜市場。, where Shanghainese will be able to swipe a phone to buy anything from a haircut to a tooth extraction6tooth extraction拔牙。to a fi sh head for supper.

[4]A wet market in Wenzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province, has already started letting consumers wave their mobile phones at all of its goodies, and pay with Alipay, the mobile payments service affiliated7affiliate sb/sth (with/to sb/sth)使隸屬，使并入（較大的團體、公司、組織）。to ecommerce group Alibaba. Shanghai plans to follow suit8follow suit學樣，照著做。, at which point I will be able to load up on a bucket of eels or a leg of pork (with hoof9hoof（馬等動物的）蹄。attached) without pulling out my purse.

[5]Personally, I still prefer grimy10grimy骯臟的，積滿污垢的。,germ-laden11laden裝滿的。piles of Rmb 100 notes with the face of Mao Zedong on them for most of my shopping. But hardly anyone else does (or at least hardly anyone middle class and under 40).At the government-subsidised Loving Help breakfast cart near Shanghai’s People’s Square, men in suits queue up during morning rush hour to swipe their smartphones for a steamed bun or a shouzhuabing, a delectably12delectably（食物或飲料）美味可口地。greasy Chinese-style crepe13crepe油煎薄餅。that literally translates as “hand-grab pancake”.I’m all for that: I prefer it if the hand grabber of that pancake to serve it to me has not just been handling a wad14wad（紙張、鈔票等的）卷，沓，捆。of the people’s currency (with all the people’s bacteria on it).

[6]Outside a nearby office building,an Ele.me delivery man squats next to a blue insulated15insulated有隔熱（或隔音、絕緣）保護的。cooler bag, from which he dispenses 30-odd breakfasts—ordered in advance by people presumably working so hard that they do not have time to walk two minutes to the nearest fast-food emporium16emporium大型商場；大百貨商店。. I got my Egg-McMuffin-and-coffee meal for only Rmb 4 (free delivery). OK, the coffee was cold and they forgot the cream and sugar, but for this price and convenience I am happy to use the microwave.

[7]Lunch is, if anything, even easier:in the bowels of the same building is a vending machine called the Fun Box dispensing17dispense分發。app-ordered meals paid for by smartphone. Dinner? Even the local greasy chopstick accepts payment by swipe-phone. As we sit over a bowl of wontons and a plate of fried pork strips(paid by Alipay), Zhou Lijuan, 29, an accountant at a Shanghai state-owned enterprise, says she hardly ever carries cash any more. “Sometimes Rmb 1,000 in cash can stay in my purse for months.” ■

我覺得自己像是女王：如果我樂意，不帶現金（甚至信用卡）這類平民百姓才用的普通玩意兒，我也能在上海生活。

[2]中國消費者幾乎可以用智能手機搞定所有事，他們也確實是這么做的。早中晚飯？搖一搖iPhone這個“魔杖”，就有人騎電動車送飯上門——用“餓了么”等外賣應用點餐，通常免配送費，菜價也經常打折。再搖一下，出租車就會出現，準備以折扣價載你出行。再多搖一次，就有醫生準備好通過電話給你看病，每次通話只要9.9元人民幣。

[3]這叫做O2O，或“線上到線下”，瑞士瑞信銀行的數據顯示，到2017年，其業務規模可達420億元人民幣。就連最傳統的場所——社區農貿市場，也將實現線上與線下的聯姻。從剃頭到拔牙再到買魚頭做晚餐，所有這一切上海人都可以刷手機支付。

[4]在浙江省東部的溫州市，一家農貿市場已經開始允許消費者刷手機購買所有商品，用支付寶來付錢，支付寶是電商集團阿里巴巴旗下的移動支付服務平臺。上海計劃仿效這一做法，到時候我不需要掏出錢包，就可以買到一大桶鱔魚或一只蹄髈。

[5]購物時，絕大多數情況下，我個人還是愿意使用一沓沓印著毛主席頭像的百元紙鈔，那些鈔票布滿細菌，看著臟臟的。但其他的人幾乎不會這么做（至少中產階級或40歲以下的人幾乎不會）。上海人民廣場附近受政府補貼的便民早餐車前，早高峰時，西裝革履的男士們排隊用智能手機掃碼購買饅頭或“手抓餅”——一種美味可口的“中式油煎薄餅”，字面意思就是“用手抓的薄餅”。這一點我完全贊成，只希望遞給我餅的人之前不是剛摸過人民幣紙鈔（那上面都是人民的細菌）。

[6]在臨近的辦公樓外，蹲坐著一位“餓了么”的派送員，旁邊藍色的保溫包里裝著他要配送的30多份早飯。這些是上班族提前預訂的，他們想必工作太勤奮了，都沒空走上兩分鐘去最近的快餐店吃早餐。我的蛋堡套餐只花了4塊錢（免送餐費）。好吧，咖啡是涼的，他們也忘了奶油和糖，但是沖著這份價格和便利，我還是很樂意用一下微波爐的。

[7]如果午飯有什么不同的話，那就是更方便了，在同一座大樓里有一個被稱作Fun Box的售貨機，消費者可在此自取通過手機應用預訂并付費的午餐。晚飯？就連本地的小飯館都接受掃碼支付。我們點了一碗餛飩和一盤干炸里脊（都是用支付寶支付的），現年29歲、在上海一家國企當會計的周麗娟（音譯）說，自己幾乎不帶現金了，“有時1000元人民幣現金能在我錢包里放上好幾個月。” □

手機支付在中國無孔不入

ByPatti Waldmeir