The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) started formal work on a sovereign digital currency, later branded as e-CNY (digital yuan). This early work set the stage for later real-world pilots by building technical and policy foundations for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
PBOC established an R&D framework for e-CNY. This framework helped define key design choices—such as how the central bank and commercial institutions would share operational roles—so pilot programs could be tested safely at small scale.
PBOC began pilot testing in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiong’an New Area, and Chengdu. These early tests focused on controlled, “whitelisted” users and small transactions to check whether the system worked reliably in everyday payment situations.
Suzhou used e-CNY to pay part of transportation subsidies to some public-sector employees. Using real payroll-like payments helped test whether e-CNY could work for routine government disbursements, not just retail purchases.
Public reporting in mid-2020 described pilots underway in Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Xiong’an, plus some sites tied to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The mention of the Olympics signaled that China intended to test e-CNY in high-visibility settings, including areas serving visitors.
PBOC expanded pilots to include Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xi’an, Qingdao, and Dalian. This broadened testing beyond the first four cities and supported evaluation across different types of local economies and payment environments.
Shenzhen’s Luohu district ran a lottery distributing 10 million yuan in e-CNY to 50,000 residents (200 yuan each), usable at thousands of local merchants for a limited period. This was an important shift from closed internal testing to a more open public trial that generated real consumer transaction data.
Suzhou distributed 100,000 e-CNY “red envelopes” (200 yuan each) tied to the “Double 12” shopping festival. Linking e-CNY to a large retail promotion helped test consumer adoption and merchant readiness at higher volume, including online commerce.
Beijing launched a lottery distributing 10 million yuan in e-CNY to 50,000 recipients, targeted at spending in the Wangfujing shopping area and related events. Adding the capital city strengthened Olympics-related testing and expanded the pilot footprint into another major commercial hub.
PBOC’s e-CNY R&D working group released a white paper explaining the project’s top-level design, including a two-tier operating model (central bank plus authorized operators such as commercial banks). Publishing the design publicly was a milestone that clarified objectives, governance, and how pilots would scale.
China released the official e-CNY wallet app (pilot version) on major mobile app stores, making it easier for the public in pilot areas to download the wallet. This step reduced reliance on invitation-style access and signaled a push toward wider trial participation ahead of the Winter Olympics.
During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, e-CNY was promoted in and around event venues to support payments, including for overseas visitors. Using a major international event helped test operations under high traffic and diverse user needs, while demonstrating the system’s readiness beyond small local trials.
By May 31, 2022, PBOC reported about 264 million e-CNY transactions totaling around RMB 83 billion in pilot localities, with millions of merchants able to accept e-CNY. These figures showed how pilots were moving from “proof of concept” into sustained, multi-scenario testing across many parts of the economy.
PBOC described continued expansion and scenario-building, including large numbers of transactions and growing merchant acceptance across pilot areas. By late 2022, official summaries framed the 2019–2022 phase as a successful national trial period that validated core technical and operational design, while still treating e-CNY as a pilot rather than a fully launched currency.
China's e-CNY (digital yuan) pilot programs and national trials (2019–2022)