Why this matters before you even pack
China requires every foreign national to have their place of stay registered with the local police. It is not aimed at long-stay residents only: it applies to a four-night holiday, a visa-free transit stop, and a single night on a friend's sofa. Almost every visitor who ends up fined was staying somewhere other than a hotel and did not know the rule existed.
The legal basis is Article 39 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People's Republic of China, in force since 1 July 2013. Its first paragraph puts the duty on hotels. Its second puts it on you:
Anyone staying somewhere that is not a hotel must, within 24 hours of arriving at that address, complete registration with the public security organ for that area. The duty falls on the visitor or on the person putting them up, so a host can do it on your behalf, but if nobody does it, it is you who is in breach.
The 24-hour limit, and the 72-hour claim
The 24-hour figure is the one written into the current law, and it applies everywhere. You will see the rule quoted all over the internet as "24 hours in cities, 72 hours in rural areas". Treat that with care. The 72-hour rural allowance comes from the implementing rules attached to the old 1985 aliens law, which were superseded when the 2013 law and its State Council regulations took effect. The text of Article 39 draws no distinction between urban and rural addresses, and neither does the UK Foreign Office advice, which simply says 24 hours. Some provincial police pages still repeat the 72-hour wording for countryside addresses. We could not confirm a current national rule granting 72 hours, so assume 24 and do it the day you arrive. If a rural police station tells you that you had longer, you have lost nothing.
In a hotel you do nothing
If you check into a hotel, hostel or licensed guesthouse, the front desk scans your passport and files the registration with the Public Security Bureau over their terminal. That is why reception keeps your passport for a few minutes at check-in, and why some smaller hotels refuse foreign guests outright: they are not set up on the system.
Ask for the printed slip. In English it is usually called the Registration Form of Temporary Residence; in Chinese, the 临时住宿登记表 (linshi zhusu dengji biao). Layout varies by city. Photograph it. You will want it if you later extend a visa, apply for a residence permit, or are stopped and asked where you are staying.
Airbnb, a flat, or a friend's spare room
This is where people get caught. A short-let flat booked through Airbnb or a Chinese platform is not a hotel for these purposes, and the landlord usually does not register you. The duty transfers to you.
Two ways to do it:
- In person at the local police station. Find the 派出所 (paichusuo) for the district containing the address, not any police station you happen to pass. Your host should know which one. Go within 24 hours of arriving, with your host if possible. The desk prints the same temporary residence form.
- Online, if you are in a pilot region. From 20 March 2026 the National Immigration Administration has been piloting online accommodation registration for non-hotel stays in seven provincial-level regions: Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan. You or your host can file through the NIA service site at s.nia.gov.cn, the "NIA 12367" app, or its WeChat or Alipay mini-programmes. The NIA says online filing has the same legal effect as filing at a police counter, and that the scheme will widen nationally as the pilot progresses. Outside those seven regions, go in person.
Take with you: your passport, and a photocopy or clear phone photo of the photo page, your visa or entry stamp, and your most recent entry stamp. If a Chinese host is putting you up, they should bring their ID card and, where the station asks for it, the household register (户口簿, hukou bu) and the lease or title deed for the property. Requirements for the host's paperwork vary noticeably between cities, so ring the station or ask your host to.
Changing hotel or city
Registration is tied to an address, not to your trip. Each new address needs its own registration, within 24 hours of arriving there. Moving hotel in the same city, flying from Chengdu to Xi'an, or going from a hotel to a friend's flat all count. Hotels handle it each time without you asking. Non-hotel stays do not. If you leave China and come back on the same visa, you start again at the new address.
Visa-free and transit visitors
Yes, it applies. The law is written around foreigners staying in China, not around which document got you in. Visa-free entry under the unilateral schemes, mutual exemption agreements, and the 240-hour transit policy all leave the Article 39 duty intact. The Foreign Office guidance for British citizens entering visa-free is explicit that you must register with the local PSB within 24 hours. In practice transit travellers almost always sleep in hotels, so it is handled for them.
The penalty
Article 76 of the same law covers failure to register under Article 39. The sanction is a warning and a fine of up to RMB 2,000. "Up to" matters: it is a ceiling, not a set figure, and in practice officers often issue a warning or a small penalty for an obviously innocent first offence, particularly if you turn up voluntarily and late rather than being found out. We have not found an official published scale of amounts, so do not treat any specific figure you read online as fixed.
The knock-on effects are the real cost. A recorded administrative penalty sits on your immigration file. It can be raised when you apply to extend your stay, convert to a residence permit, or apply for a later Chinese visa, and some applications ask directly whether you have been penalised under Chinese law. It is not an automatic refusal, but it is an awkward conversation you can avoid for the price of twenty minutes at a police counter.
If you realise you are late
Go anyway. Registering a day late and voluntarily is handled far more gently than being unregistered when the police run a check, which does happen during big political or sporting events. Bring your host, apologise, and do not try to backdate anything.