Should short-term tourists try to open a Chinese bank account?

A wallet payment account and a bank account are different things in law

Article 23 defines a payment account as an electronic ledger opened on the user's genuine intent to initiate payment instructions, reflect transaction detail and record a balance — and directs that the state guides institutions to cooperate with commercial banks so that corporate users are served through bank accounts. So opening a wallet is not opening a bank account, and the question of whether you need one is a separate question.

Where in the source: 第二十三条: 支付账户，是指根据用户真实意愿为其开立的，用于发起支付指令、反映交易明细、记录资金余额的电子簿记载体; 国家引导、鼓励非银行支付机构与商业银行开展合作.

Whichever you hold, it must be in your own name and may not be transferred

Article 23 requires payment accounts to be real-name and bars anyone from illegally buying, selling, renting or lending them. Arrangements offered to visitors that involve using a resident's account fall inside that prohibition rather than in a grey area.

Where in the source: 第二十三条: 支付账户应当以用户实名开立; 任何单位和个人不得非法买卖、出租、出借支付账户.

Money held for you in a wallet is ring-fenced from the operator

Articles 27 and 29 forbid the institution from misappropriating reserve funds or pledging them, require the reserve to sit at the central bank or a qualifying commercial bank, and bar any unit or individual from freezing or enforcing against that account except as law provides. For a short trip that is the sourced answer to whether a balance needs a bank account behind it to be safe.

Where in the source: 第二十七条 and 第二十九条: reserve funds may not be misappropriated or pledged; held at the PBOC or a qualifying commercial bank; no unit or individual may freeze or enforce against the reserve account except as law provides.