Suzhou, as the only city in Jiangsu Province to be part of a nationwide pilot program about the digital fiat currency, or the e-CNY, has seen an ever-expanding presence of digital yuan in people's lives.
The city has issued e-coupons in the form of e-CNY to stimulate the consumption during the Spring Festival. In the program, more than 500,000 people have received the e-coupons totaling 61.1 million yuan, which spurred up spending of one billion yuan.
In Suzhou, more and more merchants now support digital yuan wallet transactions covering areas including shopping, gas station, public utilities, catering services and transportation.
Since its debut in late 2019, the digital yuan has been accessible in 10 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Suzhou, on an invitation basis. Then the "e-CNY (Pilot Version)" app was available for download on Chinese Android and Apple app stores this month - but only for users in pilot areas including payment scenarios for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
