The “red packet” for China’s CBDC pilot in Suzhou city will come into effect at 20:00 this evening and will be valid from 20:00 on December 11 to 24:00 on December 27. The red packet issued can be consumed in the designated offline merchants in Suzhou city through the “Digital Yuan App”, either buy products in various stores around Suzhou with the online e-retailer JD.com.

The trial will see around 1,000 participants try out the feature, which will be available even without an internet connection. However, 100,000 more people will participate in the pilot project in Suzhou, as the government plans on testing out the platform’s stability and resilience when handling a significant number of payments. Each of the 100,000 participants will receive 200 yuan, worth around $30.

Roll up banner at the gate of the shopping mall

At the entrance of a shopping mall in Suzhou, roll up banners about the digital yuan “red packets” has been pulled up, and can be seen everywhere in the mall. Compared with CBDC test in Shenzhen that only pasted signs at the cash register in the pilot stores, Suzhou’s digital yuan test is more “high-profile”.

In addition to roll up banners, the sign “welcome to use digital yuan e-CNY” will be pasted on the door wall or cash register of the pilot merchants. On the counter, also put the QR code. A bank staff member at the scene told reporters that whether or not to participate in the pilot was decided by the merchants themselves.

The shop assistants of the merchants participating in the pilot all said that they had officially participated in the pilot “two weeks ago” or “more than ten days ago”. However, there are a few people coming to use digital yuan.

“We have been preparing for the pilot for more than two months,” said the bank staff, recently, he has been patrolling every day, and training has been given to merchants to teach them how to use them. He has “trained those merchants for several rounds.”

However, for “offline payment”, the shop assistants of the three merchants said that they did not know that the digital yuan could be paid offline. Only one shop assistant said that offline payment could be made in the store.

“The offline payment has not been completed yet. The scene will have to wait until the double 12.” Said the store manager of the above merchants.

He revealed that Suzhou’s offline payment is mainly used for parking. When you enter the underground garage, you can directly scan the code to pay, but “offline payment can only be realized through hard wallet.”

It is understood that “hardware wallet” refers to the physical media opened through the counter or electronic channel to store digital yuan, and it is a DC/EP carrier with hardware security unit media.