Guide

How to see a doctor in China

The medical care in Chinese public hospitals is often good. The administrative process around it is what causes trouble for foreigners. This guide walks through the whole sequence, in order, and flags the points where people usually get stuck.

Reviewed 2026-09-14. Procedures differ between cities and between hospitals — always confirm the details with the specific hospital you plan to visit.

1. Before you go: check your entry and insurance status

Two things are worth settling before you need care, not after.

Entry status. Hospitals require real-name registration, which means a passport or Chinese ID. If you are in China on a visa-free entry, a tourist visa or a short-stay visa, that is normally enough for outpatient care. If you are specifically travelling to China for medical treatment — particularly anything involving hospitalisation or surgery — there is a dedicated visa category for that purpose, and the paperwork it requires comes from the Chinese hospital, not from you. The visa and entry guide covers all three routes, including the USD 10,000 bank deposit certificate and the carer restrictions.

Insurance. Most international health insurance plans operate on a pay-first, claim-later basis in mainland China. A limited number of hospitals with international departments offer direct billing, and only with specific insurers. Call your insurer's assistance line before you go and ask two questions: which hospitals near you are in network, and what documentation they need for the claim. Keep every receipt and every test report — Chinese hospitals issue official invoices (发票) that insurers usually require.

Costs are handled separately — see what medical care costs and how to find the real price, including the price list and itemised cost sheet hospitals are required to give you.

2. Choose the right type of registration

Chinese hospitals are classified by an official grading system. Large comprehensive public hospitals are usually Tertiary Grade A (三级甲等, commonly shortened to 三甲), which reflects the hospital's size, staffing and technical capability. Many of these hospitals run a separate international medical department (国际医疗部).

Which registration slot you book matters more than which hospital you pick, because it determines the price, the waiting time and whether anyone can speak to you in English.

If language is your main obstacle, an international department is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement you can buy — but it is also the most expensive route, and availability outside major cities is patchy.

3. What to bring

• Your passport, and the same document you used to register, every time.
• A written summary of your problem in Chinese if possible: when it started, what changed, what you have already tried. Consultation slots are short.
• Your medication list, with generic drug names and doses.
• Your allergy history, including drug allergies.
• Previous medical records, ideally translated. Bring the originals if you have them.
• Payment backup. Chinese mobile payment if you have it, an international card, and some cash.

4. Register

Registration (挂号) is a paid step that reserves a slot in a specific department. It is not an appointment with a named doctor, and it usually happens before you see anyone at all. See the step-by-step registration guide for the channels and the sequence.

5. Payment is the part to plan for

This is where foreign patients most often get stranded. Chinese public hospitals have been built around domestic mobile payment — Alipay and WeChat Pay, both typically funded from a Chinese bank account. Coverage for foreign-issued cards has improved in recent years, but it is not universal, and it is not consistent between hospitals.

What that means in practice:

• Confirm the payment options before you commit to a hospital, by phone or at the registration desk.
• Carry cash as a fallback. Small hospitals may not accept international cards at all.
• Expect to pay at several separate points: registration, each test or scan, medication, and any procedure.
• Keep the official invoice (发票) from every payment. Without it, insurance claims usually fail.

6. The consultation

You wait for your number to be called, then see the doctor. Consultations are usually short — often five to fifteen minutes in ordinary outpatient departments. The doctor will typically examine you, then either prescribe medication, order tests, or refer you onward.

Two practical notes. First, bringing a Chinese-speaking friend or colleague is worth more than any translation app, because medical vocabulary is where machine translation fails most expensively. Second, if you use a translation app, ask the doctor to write down key terms as well as saying them.

7. Tests, scans and results

The order is almost always: the doctor orders → you pay first → you take the payment slip to the test location → the test is done → results come back later. Nothing proceeds until the payment is made, so budget time for a queue at the payment counter between every step.

Simple blood tests may come back the same day. Imaging and more specialised tests can take several days. Results are usually collected from a self-service kiosk, a counter, or through the hospital's app or mini-program — and the app route often requires a Chinese mobile number.

Getting results reviewed usually means registering again. A follow-up visit (复诊) to show the doctor your results is normally a new registration and a new fee. Ask about this when you are first seen, so you know what the second visit will require.

8. Prescriptions and pharmacies

If the doctor prescribes medication, you pay for it first and then collect it from the hospital pharmacy (药房). Hospitals also dispense traditional Chinese medicine, often as raw herbs or as ready-prepared granules.

Outside pharmacies (药店) are widespread, but prescription-only medicines generally need a prescription, and English-speaking staff are uncommon outside major cities. Ask the hospital pharmacy for the generic name of anything you plan to refill elsewhere.

9. Emergencies

The medical emergency number is 120. In practice, dispatchers may not speak English — if you can, have a Chinese speaker make the call. For serious but not life-threatening problems, a taxi or ride-hailing car to the nearest hospital emergency department (急诊) is often faster than waiting.

Emergency departments operate around the clock and are separate from outpatient registration. In practice they prioritise stabilising patients in critical condition. As with everything else in this guide, payment administration runs alongside treatment.

10. Getting copies of your records

Chinese law gives you an explicit right to inspect and copy your medical records (病历) — not just to ask, but to receive a copying service. The records covered include the outpatient record, admission record, temperature chart, order sheets, laboratory and test reports, medical imaging, consent forms, surgical and anaesthesia records, pathology material, nursing records and the medical fee record.

How it works in practice:

• Where to go. The hospital's medical records department, not the ward or the outpatient desk.
• Who may apply. You, or your authorised representative. If the patient has died, their legal heirs.
• Identity. Bring the same passport you registered under. Note that if a visit was not registered under your real name, a hospital may refuse to issue a diagnosis certificate or record copy at all — another reason not to borrow someone else's registration.
• Stamped copies. The hospital must stamp the copies with a certification mark. Unstamped copies are worth far less if you need them abroad.
• You should be present. The copying should be done with the patient or a close relative present.
• Fee. A reasonable copying fee may be charged, and the fee schedule must be published.

Ask for both the outpatient record and every test report you want to keep — having them makes follow-up care in another country far easier. Records that hospitals hold are kept for a long time (a minimum of 15 years for outpatient records held by the hospital, and 30 years for inpatient records), so a missing report is usually retrievable rather than lost.

Where this guide stops

This guide explains administrative process. It does not tell you what is wrong with you, which hospital is better, or what treatment to accept — those are decisions for a qualified clinician who has examined you. Prices, visa rules and hospital procedures all change, so verify anything time-sensitive with the hospital or the relevant authority directly.

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