For a while, it almost seemed like Apple Pay wasn’t going to be able to take flight in China.

Despite the huge number of users in the region, there was quite a bit of resistance, and plenty of competitors besides. But a new development has arisen, and now, Apple Pay is registered as an entity in the Shanghai free-trade zone according to several sources.

The government-backed newspaper in the region, Wenhui News, reported that the Apple entity was registered to operate Apple Pay business, and that from there likely meant Apple Pay’s availability in at least a portion of the region.

The registry information, meanwhile, detailed that the entity’s operations included “technical consulting services” and “system integration in the field of payments.” The descriptions were later confirmed by other reports, and the launch of this Apple entity would “…bring Apple Pay, considered as a new type of business, new model and new technology, into China.”

There’s no word as to timetables, or for full entry into the Chinese market, but this seems like a good first step, if nothing else.

One of the biggest hurdles Apple faced was approval from Chinese regulators. The fact that it’s managed to get this far, meanwhile, suggests that it’s likely to make it through to the end, at least at some point. But even when it does get through, it’s going to have a tough time finding leverage. Why? Because the Chinese mobile payment market is already stuffed with options, particularly Alipay from Alibaba.

With Alipay, Chinese citizens are already doing everything from paying for groceries to buying movie tickets in advance.

Essentially, in a Chinese market, Apple would last to the party by several years, and that’s not good news at all. Though Apple would have an edge here given the number of Apple users in China-some suggest that an Apple product is a status symbol in China, and so to suggest that using Apple Pay might end up likewise really isn’t out of line at all-it would still have to get those users out of entrenched philosophy.

That’s not easy even for Apple. But then, we’ve already seen some big successes come around from the use of loyalty programs and things like that, so perhaps Apple can get its user base back with a few judicious incentives.

Still, Apple’s clearly making inroads, and it’s a safe bet that this could be the start of something big for the company that’s already staked a presence in a big portion of the planet. Just how big it will get, meanwhile, is a matter that only time will make clear, but there’s no doubt that Apple has plenty of room in which to run.