Alipay shopping fest soars in Santa's Finland hometown

China's high-spending tourists are reaching some of the most remote parts of Europe - evidenced by the fact that the Chinese payment platform Alipay gained acceptance at more than 100 shops, restaurants and hotels in the northern Finnish city of Rovaniemi within a month.

Rovaniemi, capital of the northern Finnish province of Lapland and famous for its Santa Claus village, a tourist attraction, is also the location Alipay chose to launch its 12.12 shopping festival, which gives discounts to Chinese shoppers between Dec 9 and 12 across 70,000 merchants in 16 countries globally.

The launch ceremony, held in Santa Claus village on Tuesday, was attended by Rovaniemi Mayor Esko Lotvonen, some of Alipay's local merchants partners and some Chinese tourists.