The numbers to put in your phone now
China does not use 911 or 112. Four emergency lines are kept deliberately outside the government's hotline mergers, and they are the ones that matter:
- 110 — police
- 119 — fire and rescue
- 120 — ambulance
- 122 — road traffic accidents
In Beijing, 999 also reaches an ambulance, run by the Red Cross alongside the municipal 120 service. Calls are free, including from a roaming foreign SIM.
Two more worth saving. 12367, dialled as your area code plus 12367, is the National Immigration Administration hotline: visas, overstays, lost-passport paperwork. 12345 is your city's general government line. The old national tourism hotline 12301 was folded into local 12345 lines under State Council guidance issued in December 2020, with the merger due to complete by the end of 2021. Plenty of travel sites still print 12301; 12345 is the number that is meant to be answered.
Expect Mandarin. English is patchy outside the biggest cities. Keep your address in Chinese characters on your phone, and in public, ask a bystander to make the call.
Lost or stolen passport: the three-stage trap
People get this wrong because the embassy document alone will not get you out of China. Three stages, in order.
One: the police. Report the loss at the nearest station and ask for the printed confirmation, the 报警回执 (baojing huizhi), issued in Chinese only. Some stations only accept reports for losses in their own patch; if turned away, follow their instructions on where to go.
Two: the Exit and Entry Administration. Take that receipt to the Exit and Entry Administration (出入境) division of the local Public Security Bureau. They issue a formal Confirmation of Reporting the Loss of Passport, the 护照报失证明, in Chinese and English. This normally keeps your stay legal for 30 days, within which you must obtain both a replacement travel document and a new Chinese visa. It may let you travel domestically, but check with the airline, station or hotel first.
Do both of these before approaching your embassy. The order is not optional.
Three: your embassy, then back to the EEA. With the police receipt, the EEA confirmation, your travel plans and proof of your address at home, apply for a replacement passport or an Emergency Travel Document. An ETD is the fast route if you must fly soon.
Then the step that catches people. Your new passport or ETD carries no Chinese visa. You must return to the Exit and Entry Administration to have a replacement visa issued, or the remaining validity of the old one transferred across. Until that is in your hands you cannot legally leave, and airlines will not board you. The Foreign Office says this visa process can take up to seven working days — budget for that on top of the travel document itself.
There is a penalty for delay: the Foreign Office warns that failing to get the visa transferred within the required number of days can attract a fine of RMB 500 per day. We could not find official published fees for the EEA's loss confirmation or replacement visa, so ring 12367 and ask rather than trusting a forum figure.
Hospitals
Two systems. Public hospitals give good clinical care in big cities at strikingly low cost, and are frequently crowded: register, pay, see a doctor, pay again, collect medicine from the hospital pharmacy. Privacy is thinner than you may expect and families often bring meals. Large hospitals may have a foreign patient department and paid interpretation. Outside major cities, standards vary a great deal. International clinics in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and a few other cities offer English-speaking doctors and short waits at Western prices or higher, and some bill major international insurers directly.
Payment is upfront in both. The Foreign Office warns hospitals commonly want a deposit of roughly RMB 3,000 to 7,000 before treatment starts, even when you are insured, and that many prefer Alipay, WeChat Pay or cash to a foreign credit card. Get a mobile wallet working before you fly.
Travel insurance in China overwhelmingly reimburses rather than pays. Ring your insurer's 24-hour line before you go in: they may steer you to a direct-billing clinic and issue a guarantee of payment, which public hospitals rarely accept. Otherwise pay, and keep every receipt, the itemised bill, the diagnosis and the prescription slips.
Pharmacies
Pharmacies are everywhere, labelled 药店 (yaodian). Paracetamol, ibuprofen, antihistamines, antacids, rehydration salts and dressings are easy to buy over the counter. What you will not find is the brand you know — look for the active ingredient and let a translation app read the box.
Bring your own supply of anything you depend on, in original labelled packaging, with a copy of the prescription or a GP letter. Chinese pharmacies cannot dispense against a foreign prescription. Some categories are restricted or prohibited on import, strong painkillers and stimulants among them; check with the Chinese embassy before flying if yours is one. Prescription medicine is normally dispensed by a hospital pharmacy after a consultation, not bought on the street.
Theft, scams and the report your insurer will demand
Serious crime against visitors is uncommon; opportunistic theft at crowded sights is not. Nor is the tea-house or massage set-up, where a friendly English-speaking stranger steers you somewhere that produces a bill for thousands of yuan, sometimes with menace or card fraud behind it. Decline and walk away.
For a theft claim you need the same 报警回执: go to the station covering where it happened, report it, and do not leave without the printed receipt. Get it the same day — insurers routinely refuse claims reported late, and chasing a report from abroad afterwards is close to impossible. Photograph it. For disputes with operators, touts or shops, the city 12345 line handles tourism market complaints.
Carry your actual passport. Police run random identity checks, more often around major political and sporting events, and photocopies are not accepted.
What your embassy can and cannot do
Consular staff can issue emergency travel documents for a fee, give you lists of local lawyers, doctors and interpreters, contact your family, and visit you if you are arrested or hospitalised. Assistance itself is not charged for.
They cannot pay medical bills, get you out of prison, give legal advice, investigate a crime, interfere in Chinese court or immigration decisions, obtain a Chinese visa for you, or make the Exit and Entry Administration move faster. Insurance and a cloud-stored photo of your passport will do more for you than the embassy can.