Shanghai residents will soon be able to scan their Suishenma digital ID and health QR code to pay for their fares on buses, ferries and metro services, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government has announced. Shanghai public transport

This will save people the trouble of using different apps on their phones to ride buses, ferry boats and Metro trains.

The addition of support for public transport fare payments will follow the integration of the Suishenma QR code with the QR code-based systems currently used for fare payments on buses run by Jiushi Group and metro trains operated by Shentong Group and the refitting of transport network ticketing machines and turnstiles.

The Suishenma QR code was launched in February 2020 to enable Shanghai residents to verify their identity and their health status during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as gain access to public venues and a range of social and municipal services.

The work involves the integration of QR codes used for different purposes and the refitting of ticket machines on public transportation.

People will be able to use their health code “Suishenma” when riding some of the buses and ferry boats by the end of September or early October, and the Metro operator said it will strive to enable the use of the codes on the maglev line and Metro Lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 16, 17 and 18 by the end of the year.

Now, get a digital driving license too

Starting this week, residents can apply for digital licenses through the “Jiaoguan 12123” app, the official service app of the national traffic police, and digital permits have the same legal status as the paper ones and are valid across the Chinese mainland, local police said.

The digital license contains data from the paper version, with real-time updates of deducted points of the license holders due to traffic offenses.

People can either use photos in the traffic police database or upload pictures of themselves from their mobile phones. The pictures will be verified by police, and if they’re valid, the applicants will get their digital licenses within one workday.

People whose driving licenses have expired or are invalid won’t be able to apply for the digital version.

The digital licenses are secured by digital signature technology and it is very difficult, or nearly impossible, to counterfeit or manually modify them, police noted.

When stopped for a check of their driving licenses, motorists with digital ones don’t need to show their paper licenses as the police will be able to verify the authenticity of the digital version with their hand-held devices, according to police.

Digital licenses can also be used while applying for various administrative services from the traffic police and settling issues related to traffic offenses or accidents. However, if police decided to have a temporary seizing of the offenders’ driving licenses, the paper version has to be submitted.

People can also use the digital licenses to file insurance claims, rent cars to apply for driving jobs, police said.

Those who have changed the class of automobiles they’re allowed to drive, renewed their licenses or got new licenses issued in another city need to apply for the digital ones again.

People who have problems applying for digital licenses through the app can apply at the vehicle management service centers of the traffic police where they got their paper licenses issued.

Including Shanghai, 28 cities around China began allowing digital driving license applications from Wednesday.

This follows a digital driving license trial earlier this year in Tianjin City; Chengdu, Sichuan Province; and Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, where more than 2 million motorists have applied for the digital permits so far.

By 2022, all motorists in China will be entitled to the service. Shanghai public transport

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