#WeChat 101: How to buy movie tickets using WeChat Wallet
This is a serial by AllChinaTech team to give you an idea of how to use WeChat, maybe one of the most convenient apps in the world, to survive in China — even when you don’t speak Chinese.
You want to go see a movie, but don’t know how to say “The Avengers” in Chinese, or you’re worried that tickets will be sold out before you get there. Fortunately, you can get movie tickets right from your phone, if you have WeChat Wallet set up. They usually offer discounts on tickets too. It does takes a bit of reading in Chinese, but fear not — we’ll walk you through the process. Here’s how:
- Open up WeChat Wallet in the “Me” section of WeChat.
2. Select “Movie Tickets”
3. Select the movie you want to see. The top two buttons are “movie tickets” and “events”, and the ones below are “screening now” and “coming soon”. You can also use the tabs on the bottom to navigate by movie, by theater, use the “discover” feature, or go into “my movies” for more options.
4. If you’re happy with the movie you’ve chosen, click the big green button on the bottom of this screen.
5. You can have WeChat use your current location to find the theaters closest to you, or manually select a theater.
6. Unfortunately, this part takes a bit of deciphering if you don’t read Chinese (check out our guide to Chinese translation here.) For your information, the top selection on my screen is the theater in Sanlitun (it’s 8139.9km away because I’m doing this from England).
7. Now select the showing you want to attend. Depending on the movie and the theater, you can select tickets for different dates in the green tab above the showings. My selection was only available for today.
8. Choose your seats. White seats are the ones that are still available, red seats are already sold, and your chosen seats will be displayed in green. When you’re done hit the big green button.
9. Now put in your cell phone number, click the big green button to pay using WeChat Wallet, and pick up your tickets at the theater using the confirmation number they send you by text. Enjoy your hassle-free movie-going experience!
Catherine Lai | @catherinehslai | December 18, 2015 03:23 am
Catherine is a copy editor at AllChinaTech. Originally a writer and photographer from Canada, she came to Beijing looking for a challenge. She is interested in how we use technology and the way it changes who we are. Follow her on twitter @catherinehslai.
