Yesterday was a lousy day to
be a retailer in Shanghai. Credit cards and bank machines didn't work in many
shops across the city, and in several other parts of China, forcing many people
to walk out of stores without the goods they wanted to purchase.
The country's integrated system for bankcard transactions, which is run by
China Unionpay, broke down yesterday morning and was only partially up and
running early yesterday evening.
"Trans-bank transactions are interrupted since 10:56am on April 20 due to a
break-down of China Unionpay's network and main server," the Shanghai-based
company said in a statement published on its Website yesterday.
The breakdown affected the city's largest shopping malls, restaurants, and a
majority of stores along the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall.
Xiao Yao, a 25 year local, planned to buy a yellow jacket at the Super Brand
Mall in Pudong' Lujiazui area around noon, but couldn't as her bank card
wouldn't work and she didn't have enough money on hand to buy the jacket. A trip
to the ATM probably wouldn't have helped as most bank machines were down as
well.
Shop assistants across the city complained that sales were way down because
of the problem.
"I was annoyed to know that I can't pay the bill after squeezing my lunch
time and spending 30 minutes walking for nothing," said Lilian Li, who tried to
pay her telephone bill with a credit card at a China Mobile outlet in Huangpu
District.
Unionpay posted a statement just before 6pm yesterday saying the system was
back up at most affected stores and banks.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience we have brought to card holders,
institutions and shops," Unionpay said.
The company didn't specify the affected areas and gave no reasons for the
technical failure. A Unionpay official only referred the areas as "those that
Unionpay covers."
The problem also affected stores and shoppers in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen
and Xiamen, among other cities.
More than 920 million bankcards, including debit and credit cards, were
issued in China by the end of last year, according to Unionpay.