I see the advantages of the Chinese system but I really found myself missing my card.
- While payer-offline payments were possible most merchants didn't want to (and some seemed unable to) so payments in places with bad cell service were painful.
- It was a lot more steps to open the app and enter scanning mode or display your code than to just tap a card or phone.
- It was always unclear if you were scanning or being scanned, leading to friction for every payment (generally larger brands scan you and you scan for smaller merchants).
Honestly for in-person card payments are just nicer.
For online WeChat was better, but no different than Apple Pay or Google Pay except for course that it is standardized by the government.