Tencent said on Wednesday it has connected its Tenpay Global cross border payment platform with PayPal World, allowing United States users visiting China to pay at tens of millions of merchants that accept WeChat Pay, in one of the biggest moves yet to bridge China's mobile payment ecosystem with overseas wallets.

The service will first launch for US users before gradually expanding to other international markets, Tencent said.

The partnership comes as China steps up efforts to make its cashless consumer economy more accessible to foreign travelers.