Artificial intelligence tokens are entering mainstream consumer life in China, with banks, restaurants, cafes, and telecoms offering them as incentives in much the same way companies once offered airline miles, cashback rewards, or free Wi-Fi. Daily token consumption in China surged from 100 billion in early 2024 to 500 trillion by mid-2026, driven partly by aggressive price cuts from Chinese AI firms, whose models can cost 60–90% less than comparable offerings from U.S. rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The trend spans a wide range of sectors: major banks including China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank are issuing AI-linked credit cards that reward spending with billions of tokens, state telecom operators are selling token bundles like mobile data plans, a Beijing dumpling restaurant hands out computing vouchers after meals, and Guangzhou banks are even experimenting with "token loans" that assess AI startups' creditworthiness based on their token usage.