Apple Pay officially goes live in China

The service is also currently available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Introduced in 2014, Apple Pay lets users upload credit and debit card information to a mobile wallet. Customers can then use their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay at retail stores that have point-of-sale registers equipped with near field communication technology

Apple is working with state-owned payment processing system China UnionPay, which is the only provider of Chinese bank cards, and has more than 4.5 billion cards issued worldwide. Apple’s mobile payments service lets iPhone users pay with the phone app linked to their bank accounts, rather than a physical card.

According to Apple, some merchants Chinese locations, including 7-Eleven, KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King, are already accepting Apple Pay. Also, shopping app JD.com is expected to add support for Apple Pay.