Taicang plans to release a citizen card in June 2014. A citizen card is a multi-functional card released by the municipal government that can be used for payment and identification. It can be used when seeing the doctor, taking the bus, depositing and withdrawing money, paying, borrowing books from the library and paying online.

It is hard to integrate different functional cards into one card since different cards are released by different departments, which means the cards use different systems and card readers. The integrated card stores different encryption keys that enable it to be read by different card readers.

Taicang’s citizen card is based on the city card released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China (MOHURD). It stores three encryption keys of the MOHURD, the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China.

Since citizen cards store the encryption key of the Ministry of Health, personal health information is also recorded in the card, including blood type, blood pressure, chronic diseases and allergy history, which can be helpful for doctors.

The citizen card can be used to borrow and return books if citizens forget their library card. It also can provide services for the elderly.