E China highways to go cashless

NANCHANG -- A total of 800 highway lanes in East China's Jiangxi province will adopt mobile payment at toll stations before the end of December, the highway administration said Monday.

Scanning devices are being installed at toll stations, and some are already in use, according to the administration.

As of October, the number of toll stations in the province had reached 335.

China's third-party mobile payment market continued its rapid expansion as cashless transactions gained popularity in the country.

In the second quarter of 2017, mobile payment transactions amounted to 23 trillion yuan (about $3.46 trillion), up 22.5 percent from the previous quarter, according to a report by Beijing-based marketing consultancy firm Analysys International.

China had 724 million mobile phone users at the end of June 2017, more than 35 percent of whom make mobile payments often, according to China Internet Network Information Center.