Care in China is tiered: big hospitals in the cities — many with an international department — county hospitals in the county towns, and a health centre in every township, the , with pharmacies common in the small towns too. For an emergency, go straight to the emergency department, the — you do not register first. If it is not an emergency, ask at the which department you need. The ambulance number is 120. Outpatients no longer pay a deposit up front — you settle item by item. And up on the plateau, the emergency a visitor is most likely to meet is altitude, which is handled differently: see its own page.
What you do when you get there
If it is not an emergency, start at the in the outpatient hall — the help desk. Describe the symptoms and the nurse tells you which department to register for. That one step saves registering for the wrong department and queueing all over again. Then register (at the window, at a self-service machine, or on a phone app), report to the department you were sent to, and wait for your number.
The doctor sees you and writes tests or a prescription. You pay first, then you go for the test or collect the medicine.
If it is an emergency, go straight to the emergency department — the . It is open 24 hours and you do not register in advance: a nurse triages you, and you are seen in the order of how serious things are. If it is critical, the hospital treats first and sorts the paperwork out afterwards.
Registration is under your real name, and the document that works is your passport — at the window or at a machine, and many hospitals now take passport bookings online as well. You do not need a separate patient card: most hospitals simply create your record from the passport.
Write yourself a medical card
This is the most useful small thing you can do before you travel. Write a card — Chinese or English, either is fine — and put on it:
- your medical history (heart, blood pressure, blood sugar, asthma, anything like that)
- the medicines you take, with the generic name if you know it
- your allergies, drug allergies above all
- an emergency contact, and your insurance details
The reason is plain: outside the big cities, do not count on a doctor who speaks English. A card that has been written down is read in a few seconds, and that is far quicker than gestures and guesswork at the desk.
How the money works
Outpatients no longer pay a deposit. Since 31 March 2025, public medical institutions across China have abolished the outpatient pre-payment and bill item by item for what is actually done. Some places — public hospitals in Fujian province, for instance — have gone further and run "treat first, pay after". So you do not hand over a lump sum before you are seen.
Admission is different: inpatients still pay a deposit, settled when you are discharged. For insured patients the cap has been cut to the average out-of-pocket share for that condition.
How to pay. The reliable methods are WeChat, Alipay, or cash in RMB. A foreign credit card will not always work at a public hospital cashier — some hospitals take them, and international departments in the big cities usually do. If you can, bind your Visa or Mastercard to WeChat or Alipay before you travel; both opened to overseas users back in 2023.
What it costs. The registration, or consultation, fee runs from a few yuan to a few tens of yuan, depending on the hospital's tier and the doctor's rank. An ordinary outpatient visit is commonly around 10 yuan; deputy chief, chief physician and named-expert slots cost more, and everything costs more again in the biggest cities. For something like a common cold, registration plus medicine together usually comes to roughly 50 yuan, and the medicine itself is not expensive. Every hospital posts its prices on a board — go by what is posted on the day.
Where you can go, and how far that goes
- Township health centre — oxygen, stitches, an IV drip and medicine. Enough for minor illness and for first response, and it is the nearest medical point to wherever you are.
- County and prefecture hospitals — X-rays, laboratory tests, inpatient beds, and more than a township can take on.
- Big-city hospitals — divided finely by specialty. Many have an , an international department, with English service, and some bill commercial insurers directly. But every hospital is different, so confirm with that hospital.
- Pharmacies — the everyday things are easy to buy: painkillers, cold medicine, stomach medicine, wound care. What you cannot buy over the counter is the handful of categories China bars from retail — narcotics, Class I psychotropic drugs, radioactive medicines, abortion drugs and so on. Those need a hospital. Prescription medicines are dispensed on prescription, as the rules require.
This page does not recommend hospitals. When you actually need one, call 120 and ask which hospital nearby can take you — that is more reliable than any list, including mine.
Emergencies at altitude: find the oxygen first
High up, the order of doing things is not the same. For acute altitude sickness:
- Find the nearest oxygen — a portable canister in the car, the oxygen supply at a hotel, a first-aid point at a scenic site, the township health centre.
- Call 120 and get to the nearest hospital that can give oxygen.
- Then decide whether you need to descend.
The number to watch is your blood oxygen saturation. If it sits below 85% while you are at rest, the risk of hypoxia is already high: give oxygen and watch it closely. If it does not come back up on oxygen, or it comes with headache, nausea or tightness in the chest, descend to lower ground and mean it — do not keep climbing, and do not sit there waiting.
Two things worth knowing in advance:
- 120 is quick in the cities; do not count on an ambulance in the mountains or the townships. An hour or more is common in remote places, and some townships have no standing emergency station at all. Up here, "nearest" is usually more realistic than "wait for the ambulance".
- Serious cases cannot fly. Cabin pressure is about the same as 2,400 m — that is not a real descent. With breathing difficulty, pink frothy sputum, confusion or an unsteady walk, the priority is to lose height where you are, give oxygen, and get medical care, and let a doctor decide how to move you once you are stable. Mild altitude sickness and a flight back down to low ground is usually fine; the other direction is the problem. Flying up to the plateau gains height fast and gives your body no time to adapt, so leave time for that.
Medicine you bring in yourself
For personal medicine carried into China, customs works on "for personal use, in reasonable quantity", under customs supervision. In practice:
- carry the diagnosis issued by a medical institution and the original valid prescription where you can, so that the quantity can be assessed;
- prescription medicines: generally no more than a 7-day supply. For narcotics and Class I psychotropic drugs, injections are limited to a single dose and other dosage forms generally to no more than 3 days;
- narcotic and psychotropic drugs are prohibited or restricted imports and exports — opium, morphine, heroin, cannabis and the rest;
- anything beyond a personal, reasonable quantity has to go through the cargo channel and be declared.
If you take medicine long-term, bring enough for the whole trip, with the prescription and the leaflet. If you are not sure whether something is allowed, declare it.
Making a claim afterwards
Keep the hospital's invoice or receipt — there is usually an itemised one. Which items are covered, what documents are wanted, and whether they will accept an English version differs from insurer to insurer, so ask your own insurer rather than going by anything here.
When nobody speaks English
Outside the big cities, do not expect much English in a hospital. A translation app on your phone is the practical tool — write the symptoms, the history and the allergies out on it and show the doctor. Some big hospitals' international departments provide English service or an interpreter themselves; it costs nothing to ask when you register.
A note on Chinese and Tibetan medicine
Chinese medicine is part of the ordinary medical system here — there are dedicated TCM hospitals, and big hospitals usually have a TCM department as well. Tibetan medicine has its own tradition in the Tibetan areas. As a visitor, it is not a good idea to buy and take either of them on your own on this trip: Chinese and Tibetan medicines are just as capable of interacting with Western medicines you are already taking. If you want to try them, ask a doctor first.
The one you are most likely to get
On the plateau, the symptom visitors ask about most is headache — and it is one of the commonest signs of acute altitude sickness, usually felt on both temples and worse at night or first thing in the morning. Treat it as altitude first: see the altitude page.
Questions I get on this one
Is there a hospital nearby?
What is the emergency number?
Is it expensive to see a doctor?
Will anyone speak English at the hospital?
Can I use a credit card?
Do outpatients still pay a deposit?
Can I bring my regular medicine in?
What is on this page is local knowledge about what exists and where, not medical advice. For anything about your own health, ask your doctor before you travel. Related: altitude · travel insurance · is China safe · all essentials