If you are curious how smartphone payments work in practice, Here's a video of someone using Wechat Pay to order squeezed-to-order orange juice from a vending machine
In practice, scanning and paying is much faster than shown in the video. He is using an old phone, on a newer one scanning the barcode takes around 0.5 second and the verification takes 2-5 seconds (not 15 seconds as shown in video).
Paying in stores works differently. The WeChat app has a wallet section with your personal payment QR code (which changes every time you open the app). To pay in a store, let the clerk scan it like this https://wx.gtimg.com/pay/img/wechatpay/intro_2_1.png then enter your six digit payment passcode (optionally, you can scan your fingerprint). After entering your passcode, it takes around 5 seconds to process and verify. You get a receipt as a WeChat message (last screen shown here https://www.royalpay.com.au/resources/images/retail-example.... ).
Many stores (usually restaurants) have a nearby QR code you can scan to follow the business's WeChat "Official Account". Follow this account to earn loyalty points, discounts, and freebies whenever you pay with WeChat wallet at this business in the future. The business can send you chat messages about promotions too (you can mute them if you like). This feature ties in really well with WeChat pay.
There are other uses of WeChat Wallet too, most of which are shown in this promo video:
At timestamp 0:09, that sign/sticker signifies this store accepts WeChat Pay
At timestamp 0:24, watch the clerk scan the customer's barcode
At timestamp 0:30, the customers scans the store's payment QR code and types in the amount they want to pay. More at 0:50
At timestamp 0:38, this store has a dedicated QR code scanner
At timestamp 0:50, it's the same as 0:30 where the customer types in how much they are paying. Paying like this is common at street stalls.
At timestamp 1:00, two friends use WeChat Wallet to transfer money to each other
Opening WeChat wallet on your phone is very easy. On iPhone just force touch the WeChat app and a quick menu for the QR code scanner and WeChat Wallet appears. In my opinion, it's much faster and more convenient than paying with credit card.
(1) There is the fact that a certain character was chosen at the time, which can be full of spite, praise, ignorance, or other human characteristics;
(2) There is the character's significance in context (often personal names, toponyms and other types of names are appraised upon aesthetics - for instance if one character has 'fire' and one has 'water', or one character has 'culture' and one has 'weaponry', the name has 'balance' and suggests a certain sort of culture/inhabitant/personal character.);
(3) There is a relationship to other words and transliterations of a contemporary period or similar geospatial origin;
(4) There is the body of other uses of that character with which a particular audience may or may not be familiar, the difference between distinct audiences itself being a possible motivator for character choice;
(5) There are multiple potential pronunciations for a character (in any given historical period) which may layer meaning by suggesting other words or meanings;
... and so on. I agree that translation is not as trivial to approach naively as suggested by the parent, but to ascribe no meaning to characters used is equally wrong. As just one example, literally half an hour ago I just spent a few minutes investigating the different historical transliterations for a local toponym... at least three (3) different characters were used for the same sound through the last 1000 years, and to me this merely indicates its foreign linguistic origin (probably an Yi language, which is classified in the Lolo-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, being closer to Tibetan than Chinese).
Tangentially, I am involved in a cross-cultural poetry group in the city I live in China (昆明), and our pictures were recently featured in the local paper. Local people started stopping me on the street! After 15 years, living in China still sometimes makes me feel like some kind of rainbow unicorn exotic curio. Also, one of the most famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, was Kyrgyz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um53J3shL7I
In practice, scanning and paying is much faster than shown in the video. He is using an old phone, on a newer one scanning the barcode takes around 0.5 second and the verification takes 2-5 seconds (not 15 seconds as shown in video).
Paying in stores works differently. The WeChat app has a wallet section with your personal payment QR code (which changes every time you open the app). To pay in a store, let the clerk scan it like this https://wx.gtimg.com/pay/img/wechatpay/intro_2_1.png then enter your six digit payment passcode (optionally, you can scan your fingerprint). After entering your passcode, it takes around 5 seconds to process and verify. You get a receipt as a WeChat message (last screen shown here https://www.royalpay.com.au/resources/images/retail-example.... ).
Many stores (usually restaurants) have a nearby QR code you can scan to follow the business's WeChat "Official Account". Follow this account to earn loyalty points, discounts, and freebies whenever you pay with WeChat wallet at this business in the future. The business can send you chat messages about promotions too (you can mute them if you like). This feature ties in really well with WeChat pay.
There are other uses of WeChat Wallet too, most of which are shown in this promo video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r95Q2qElFM
At timestamp 0:09, that sign/sticker signifies this store accepts WeChat Pay
At timestamp 0:24, watch the clerk scan the customer's barcode
At timestamp 0:30, the customers scans the store's payment QR code and types in the amount they want to pay. More at 0:50
At timestamp 0:38, this store has a dedicated QR code scanner
At timestamp 0:50, it's the same as 0:30 where the customer types in how much they are paying. Paying like this is common at street stalls.
At timestamp 1:00, two friends use WeChat Wallet to transfer money to each other
Opening WeChat wallet on your phone is very easy. On iPhone just force touch the WeChat app and a quick menu for the QR code scanner and WeChat Wallet appears. In my opinion, it's much faster and more convenient than paying with credit card.