- Luohu city offered a lucrative promotion for tourists from Hong Kong
- He gives them e-CNY wallets with discounts in stores
- But the Hong Kongers were indifferent to the proposal
Shenzhen is the southeastern metropolis of China that connects the mainland with Hong Kong. Recently, the local town of Luohu (a suburb of Shenzhen) began issuing e-wallets in yuan (e-CNY) to Hong Kong tourists. But demand hasn’t lived up to expectations yet.
To distribute coins, the Luohu authorities installed the first cryptomats in China. They are only open to Hong Kong residents. To receive digital wallets in yuan, they must register at a crypto ATM and replenish their account with an Octopus bank card. The wallets can then be used to shop at over 1,400 stores in the Luohu area. At the same time, users receive a 20% discount from the government in all outlets.
The authorities planned to release 50,000 digital wallets in e-CNY from February 22 to March 31. But as of February 26, only 625 visitors took advantage of the offer, local media reported.
To promote the e-CNY, Shenzhen allocated 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) during the Lunar New Year. These tokens could be used in city restaurants, shops, and when ordering food.
Despite China’s efforts to promote its CBDC, the project faces many obstacles. This is both limited use cases and competition with other well-known payment services such as Alipay and Wechat. But they are trying to rectify the situation and have recently implemented smart contracts in the electronic yuan.
