The three numbers to memorise before you arrive
The official foreigner guide referenced here lists three emergency numbers that every visitor should save before departure: 110 for police, 119 for fire, and 120 for first aid. These three short number strings are the fastest way to reach help, and writing them down on paper as well as storing them in your phone removes one point of failure if your handset loses power or signal at the wrong moment.
One point the sources do not settle: the numbers are what the official guide provides, but the guide does not state that every city delivers the same English-language response on the other end of the line. Call-centre language support can vary by location. A useful habit is to also carry the name and address of your accommodation written in Chinese characters, so a bystander, taxi driver, or hotel staff member can place the call or repeat your location for you. The number itself stays the same; the language experience on the call may not.
Practical check: before you travel, open a notes app or a paper card and record "Police 110 / Fire 119 / Ambulance 120". Add your lodging's name and address in Chinese next to it. If you are travelling with others, make sure each person carries the card, not only the group leader. In a moment of stress, the person holding the phone may not be the person who packed the shared folder.
Losing your passport — the emergency that blocks onward travel
Of the situations a visitor can face, a lost or stolen passport is the one that directly affects whether you can leave the country. The NIA law text that governs foreign visitors' exit-entry documents makes clear that passport loss needs official handling before onward travel. In plain terms: you cannot simply book the next flight out and sort the paperwork later at the airport — the exit-entry rules require official handling first.
What "official handling" means in practice is that the loss must be dealt with through the proper authority rather than by self-declaration. The supplied sources point to the NIA (National Immigration Administration) law text as the governing framework, so the practical move is to treat any passport loss as an immediate priority: secure the loss report, then complete the official handling required before you attempt to continue travelling. Because the exact local office, appointment route, and document set are not detailed in the supplied sources, do not assume a one-size-fits-all procedure — confirm the current local requirement with the authority rather than repeating another traveller's account.
Failure case to avoid: assuming a police report alone clears you to depart. The governing text ties passport loss to exit-entry document rules, and those rules require official handling before onward travel. Build extra time into your plan so a lost passport does not collide with a fixed international departure date.
Local registration and the visitor services framework
The official foreigner guide provides a foreign visitor services framework that includes local registration. For a visitor, the takeaway is that registration is part of the structured support the guide describes, not an optional extra you can skip without consequence. The precise trigger — when registration is required, where to complete it, and what proof you must show — is set out in the framework rather than spelled out in the supplied excerpts, so treat it as a step to confirm on arrival rather than a detail to guess in advance.
A useful pattern is to ask at your first accommodation whether local registration applies to your stay and what they need from you to complete it. Keeping your passport, entry stamp, and any lodging documents together in one folder makes this check faster and reduces the chance of a scramble later in the trip.
Healthcare, hospitals, and the limits of what is confirmed
When it comes to actually receiving care, the sources support only a narrow set of facts, and it is worth being precise about the boundary. The official guide lists 120 for first aid, and the foreign visitor services framework exists to support visitors. What the sources do not confirm is a city-specific English-language emergency hospital directory. No official list of named facilities with English-language service was supplied, and the known gap is explicit: verify locally before naming a facility.
So the honest guidance is this: do not rely on a pre-written list of "the English-speaking hospital in City X" unless you have confirmed it locally. Instead, use 120 for first aid, and for non-emergency care ask your accommodation, your insurer's assistance line, or local contacts to identify a suitable facility at the time you need it. This keeps you from acting on an unverified directory that may be out of date or simply not official.
Two claims this guide deliberately does not make: it does not promise a specific medical outcome, and it does not state what any insurance plan will or will not cover. Those are matters for the treating facility and your own policy, not something the supplied official sources address.
A planning example, not a confirmed schedule
To show how the pieces fit, here is a structural illustration — a scaffold for your own planning, not a verified itinerary with fixed times or places. On arrival day, the visitor checks in, asks the front desk about local registration and what documents it requires, and stores the lodging address in Chinese on a paper card alongside 110/119/120. On a later day, if the passport goes missing, the visitor treats it as an exit-entry matter: report the loss and seek the official handling required before any onward travel, rather than waiting until the departure date. If first aid is needed, the visitor calls 120 and, where language is uncertain, hands the Chinese address card to a local helper to relay the location. Each step draws only on the confirmed facts above and avoids naming unconfirmed facilities.
Exceptions and edge cases
- Language support: the official numbers are listed, but the sources do not confirm uniform English response across cities, so prepare a Chinese-language address aid.
- Passport loss: normal travel continues only after official handling under the NIA exit-entry rules; do not assume a police report is sufficient on its own.
- Hospitals: no official city-specific English emergency directory was confirmed, so verify any named facility locally before relying on it.
- Coverage: medical outcome and insurance coverage are outside what the official sources state; confirm those with the facility and your insurer.
A pre-departure checklist you can act on
Before you leave home: - Save 110 (police), 119 (fire), 120 (first aid) in your phone and write them on a paper card. - Add your accommodation's name and address in Chinese characters to that card, so someone local can help you communicate. - Photograph or photocopy your passport and entry stamp, and store a copy separately from the original. - Note that a lost passport requires official handling under NIA exit-entry rules before you can travel on — build buffer time into any fixed departure. - Plan to ask your accommodation on arrival about local registration and what they need from you. - For hospitals, plan to verify a facility locally rather than trusting an unconfirmed English-language directory. - Check with your own insurer about coverage and the assistance number you should call, since the official sources do not state coverage.
Sources
- Official foreigner guide (BizExpatsInChina2025) — lists 110/119/120 and the foreign visitor services framework; published/updated 2025, verified 2026-09-28.
- NIA exit-entry law text — governs foreign visitors' exit-entry documents and passport-loss handling; verified 2026-09-28.