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Q: Can you buy other things with your subway card?
I've seen people with hundreds and hundreds of RMB on their subway cards. Is it just them being weird or can these cards be used to buy other stuff?
11 years 51 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
In Beijing you can use the subway card on taxis and some corner stores but haven't seen anyone use them.
Mr_spoon:
I tried paying taxis with it for YEARS, but every time it's the same bullshit. "Doesn't work", "Too ma fan", "I'm a n00b", etc.
In Shanghai it can be used on all public transport. I've seen the same thing, people with hundreds of kuai on a card, I assumed it was because their company will give them travel allowance and either they dont use it all or they just do a lot of traveling and need that much.
maybe they just wanna show off.... on the bus^^
one reason could be paying on taxi, as this can suck the money pretty fast. apart from that shanghai is not yet like hong kong, where u can use the card in convenience stores, mcdonalds, starbucks, etc
The metro card in Hong Kong is amazing even vending machines to toy machines makes you want to spend it there for the novelty.
that depend on where you live in. at most metropolise subway card could also use to pay buses and taxies and purchase breakfast or other foods.
some companies might give bonuses, not in cash, but in form of shopping cards or even transport cards
In Guangzhou,it definitely can be. We often use it when we buy things at 7-11、OK store. It's convenient and we don't have to worry about lack of changes.
dandmcd:
Until you lose it and have no way to recover the money from the card.
You can use it at some fast food chain restaurants like KFC. I'm not sure about Mcdonalds but one day I had no cash on me. Forgot to bring some, but realized that there was a transport card on the KFC window so I asked and tried to use it and to my surprise it worked. 
the serious, boring answer to your q. is depends on what city you are talking about. As others have mentioned, it is kinda hard to find a place in HK where you cannot use the Octopus.....
Since around 2008, in Beijing, you're supposedly able to pay for cabs with subway cards.
I've tried many times, and I've yet to meet a taxi driver that accepts to use it.
Apparently it's because they have to make a trip to the company or something like that to get the money, and they're lazy bastards. Even if you have ZERO cash and you're a 17 years old boy without a credit card whose parents are out of town, they refuse. Yep.
