Before you go
Health and emergencies
The full guide and its references are available below.
The numbers to call, how pharmacies and hospitals work for visitors, and the steps to take if you lose your passport.
Numbers to know
The emergency numbers are the same everywhere in mainland China. If you can, ask someone nearby who speaks Chinese to make the call, and have the address in Chinese ready to read out.
For anything to do with your visa, your stay or your passport, the National Immigration Administration runs the 12367 hotline. It answers around the clock in English as well as Chinese, and in Russian, Japanese and Korean.
Save your embassy’s or consulate’s emergency number in your phone before you travel. It is the call to make after losing a passport or ending up in hospital.
The hardest part of an emergency call is often saying where you are. Every place page on this site has a Show in Chinese card with the name and address in Chinese; your hotel's card or booking confirmation does the same job.
Before you go
- ✓Travel insurance with medical cover. Healthcare in China is not free and can be very expensive. Get a policy that covers treatment, medical evacuation and repatriation, and keep its emergency number with your passport.
- ✓Your own medicines. Bring enough for the whole trip. Some medicines that are legal at home are restricted or banned in China, so check anything unusual with the Chinese embassy before you fly.
- ✓Water. Tap water is generally not safe to drink. Drink bottled water.
Pharmacies
A pharmacy (药店, yàodiàn) is the first stop for anything minor. What you can buy over the counter depends on how a medicine is classified, and the box tells you.
- ✓Prescription medicines can only be sold with a doctor’s prescription, which is why bringing your regular medicines from home is easier than trying to replace them.
- ✓Over-the-counter medicines carry an oval OTC mark. A red mark is Class A, sold in pharmacies where a pharmacist can advise you. A green mark is Class B, the safest group, which can also be sold in approved ordinary shops.
Don’t count on English at the counter. Type your symptoms into a translation app and show the screen, or show the name of the medicine you use at home; the active ingredient is more useful than a brand name.
Seeing a doctor
For anything a pharmacy cannot handle, go to a hospital.
Public hospitals register patients by their ID, so bring your passport. For an emergency, go to the emergency department (急诊, jízhěn), or call 120.
International departments. Several large public hospitals in the big cities have an international medical department for foreign patients, and the largest cities also have private international hospitals and clinics. Your insurer, or your embassy’s list of doctors, can point you to one.
Paying. Expect to pay yourself and claim back from your insurer later, so keep every receipt and medical report. Some insurers have direct-billing arrangements with particular hospitals, which spares you the upfront payment; call your insurer before you go in if you can, and as soon as you can if you cannot.
Beijing's guide for foreign patients lists cash, international credit cards, UnionPay cards and mobile wallets as accepted payment. Carry your passport and a working card or wallet, and do not count on a hospital in a smaller city taking a foreign card.
If you lose your passport
Losing a passport in China is fixable, but it takes several days and three offices: the police, your embassy and the exit-entry administration. Plan on dealing with all three before you can leave the country.
Report the loss or theft at the police station nearest to where it happened, and get the written receipt of your report.
Take the receipt to the exit-entry administration of the local Public Security Bureau (公安局出入境管理) and apply for a certificate confirming the passport loss. Bring photos and a copy of the lost passport if you have one. The certificate is usually issued on the next working day or the one after.
Take the certificate to your embassy or consulate and apply for a new passport or emergency travel document.
Go back to the exit-entry administration with the new passport to have your visa, or the document you need to leave, reissued.
Tell your hotel or the local police station your new passport number so your registration is updated.
Loss certificate1–2 working days
Certificate valid30 days
Visa reissueUp to 7 working days
The loss certificate is valid for 30 days, and you need a new passport and the right document to stay or leave within that time. If you go straight to your embassy without reporting the loss to the police first, you will need a letter from the embassy when you apply for the replacement visa, so report it first.
A photo of your passport's bio page and of your entry stamp or visa, saved somewhere you can reach from any phone, makes every step above faster.
Sources
Checked in September 2026. If something has changed, tell us with the feedback buttons below.
1. China travel advice: getting help, emergency numbers and lost passports (FCDO, GOV.UK), checked Sep 2026.
2. China travel advice: health (FCDO, GOV.UK), checked Sep 2026.
3. China enhances multilingual services for the 12367 immigration hotline (Global Times), 26 Nov 2024.
4. Medical guide for foreigners in Beijing (Beijing Municipal Government), checked Sep 2026.
5. Measures for the classified management of prescription and non-prescription drugs (gov.cn), 3 Jul 2021.
6. Why non-prescription drugs are split into Class A and Class B (Beijing Medical Products Administration), checked Sep 2026.
7. How a foreigner who has lost a passport applies for replacement documents (Shanghai Public Security Bureau), checked Sep 2026.
8. Application for reporting the loss of a passport (Shenzhen Longhua District Government), 28 Aug 2025.
9. Service guide: extension, renewal and reissue of visas for foreigners (National Immigration Administration), checked Sep 2026.
Rules and apps change. Get one email when this guide is re-checked or updated, nothing else.
- ✓2026-09 — First published.