This Monday, China inaugurated a world-first palm biometrics payment system on a rail system on the Daxing Airport line in Beijing.

Passengers can now "easily enter the station and take the high-speed train" without needing tickets or using payment cards or digital wallets, according to the official press.

This initiative represents "a significant advance in rail transport, by simplifying the entry process and improving the travel experience," the officials added.

Travelers can swipe their palm over the biometric recognition device to enter the station, eliminating the need to use tickets or other forms of payment.

As each person has a unique pattern of veins in the palm of their hand, this biometric identification technology is one of the most accurate in the world.

The Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission has installed palm-recording and palm-reading devices in the ticketing area and changed the access machines to allow this innovative payment method.

China is a world leader in the biometric payments market, using technologies such as facial recognition, iris recognition, heartbeat analysis and vein mapping.

Companies such as Ant Group, which owns the electronic payment service Alipay, and Tencent, which owns the digital wallet WeChat Pay, have been driving the adoption of these technologies, both in physical establishments and on digital platforms, leading to the virtual disappearance of cash in the country.