TCM in China
How to register at a Chinese hospital as a foreigner
Short answer: you can register with a passport at large Chinese hospitals. What usually blocks foreigners is not the counter — it is the online booking system, which is largely built around a Chinese ID number and a mainland phone number.
Reviewed 2026-09-20. Booking systems differ between hospitals and are being changed — confirm with the specific hospital you plan to visit.
There are three routes in. Two of them work for visitors. One of them is where people lose an afternoon.
The three routes
| Route | Works for foreigners? | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| International department (国际医疗部) — phone or email booking | Usually yes, no Chinese phone number needed | Highest registration fee | Most reliable; confirm English support when you book |
| Hospital app / WeChat mini-program | Sometimes — depends on the hospital | Standard | Some require a Chinese ID or a mainland number; others now accept passports |
| On-site registration at the counter | Yes, with passport | Standard | No booking needed, but you queue, and popular specialists may be full |
The practical order of attack: try the international department first. If there isn't one, or it doesn't cover the department you need, go on-site — and go early.
Why the online route often fails
Chinese hospitals have moved most outpatient booking online, through their own apps and WeChat mini-programs. For a Chinese citizen with a national ID and a local phone number, this is fast and normal.
For everyone else, three things get in the way:
- Real-name registration. Chinese hospitals register patients under a real identity document — for citizens that is the national ID card, for foreign patients the passport. Systems that only accept ID numbers cannot take you.
- Phone verification. Booking confirmations are normally sent by SMS to a mainland mobile number. Without one, the confirmation never arrives.
- Payment inside the app. Booking often requires paying the registration fee in-app, which brings you to the payment question before you have even seen a doctor.
This is not a bug. These systems were designed for the domestic population, and foreign-patient support was added afterwards, unevenly. Expect variation between hospitals, and between departments in the same hospital. Confirm with the specific hospital before you rely on any online route.
What "the system accepts a passport" looks like in practice
Where a hospital has already added passport support, it does not always mean the process is instant. A published guide for international students at Chinese hospitals describes the pattern that follows, and it is worth knowing in advance:
- You register under your real name and passport, and foreign identity documents may be routed for manual verification rather than being approved automatically.
- Because of that manual step, first-time users are advised to complete registration one to three days before the visit — not on the morning you want to be seen.
- On arrival you may still have to fetch the ticket at a staffed counter rather than a self-service machine. One hospital's own published instructions for foreign patients say that first-time visitors must pay and collect their ticket at the manual counter, using the document they registered with.
- Check-in at a self-service kiosk is often mandatory even when you booked online — miss it and you can be marked absent. If the kiosk will not read your passport, go to the staffed counter rather than walking away; kiosk support for foreign documents is inconsistent, and this is the single most common reason a foreign patient loses a slot they had already booked. Your name may not appear on the display screens either, so watch the queue number rather than the name.
None of this is difficult once you know it. All of it is difficult to discover while standing in a lobby.
What to bring to the counter
- Passport — this is what you register under
- Visa, residence permit or entry stamp — sometimes asked for
- A phone number you can be reached on, ideally a Chinese one
- Your address in China — hotel address is fine
- Payment method — see the payment guide; do not assume your card works at the window
- Prior records, medication list, allergy list — relevant even at registration, since you will be choosing a department
- Insurance details, if you have them
You can go straight to a specialist
This confuses almost every foreign patient: Chinese public hospitals generally do not require a referral. You choose the department yourself and register for it directly. There is no gatekeeper deciding whether you are allowed to see a specialist.
That is convenient — and it puts the burden of choosing correctly on you. Register for the wrong department and you will be redirected, which costs you another queue.
Department names in TCM hospitals (中医医院)
If you are going to a TCM hospital or the TCM department of a general hospital, the department names are not obvious translations of what you may have at home. Common ones:
| Chinese | Pinyin | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| 针灸科 | zhēnjiǔ kē | Acupuncture |
| 推拿科 | tuīná kē | Tui na — manual therapy, closer to physiotherapy than to spa massage |
| 中医内科 | zhōngyī nèikē | TCM internal medicine — the general entry point for most non-musculoskeletal complaints |
| 中医骨伤科 | zhōngyī gǔshāng kē | TCM orthopaedics and trauma |
| 康复科 | kāngfù kē | Rehabilitation |
| 治未病中心 | zhìwèibìng zhōngxīn | "Treating before illness" centre — health maintenance and constitution-based care, not treatment of a specific diagnosed condition |
If you are unsure which one you need, register for 中医内科 first. It is the generalist department, and they will redirect you if something else fits better.
Note that some hospitals separate 普通门诊 (general clinic) from 专家门诊 (specialist clinic) and 特需门诊 (VIP clinic) — the last has much higher fees and shorter waits. Costs for all three tiers are set out in the medical cost guide, and the full walkthrough of the hospital visit is in how to see a doctor in China.
Timing
- Online slots for in-demand specialists are released on a rolling schedule and can go within minutes. This matters more at large hospitals than at smaller ones.
- On-site registration: arrive at opening if you want a realistic chance at a same-day specialist slot. Reception hours vary by hospital.
- First visits take longer than you expect. Registration, paying, finding the right floor and interpreting all add time. Do not schedule anything tight afterwards.
Common problems, and what to do
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| App requires a Chinese ID number | Call or email the international department; ask whether they can book on your behalf |
| App requires a mainland phone number for the SMS code | Ask whether email confirmation or desk registration is possible |
| Registration needs manual verification of your passport | Do it one to three days ahead — do not leave it to the day of the visit |
| Online payment rejected | Plan to pay at the counter — see the payment guide |
| Department has no English support | Ask the international desk for help, or bring your own interpreter |
| Specialist fully booked | Ask when the next release is, or register for a general clinic appointment in the same department |
| Redirected to a different department | Normal. Re-register for the correct one; the original fee is not always refunded |
One thing worth doing before you fly
Email the hospital's international department and ask four questions in writing:
- Can I register with a passport only, without a Chinese phone number?
- Can you book the appointment on my behalf?
- Is English support available in the department I need?
- What do I need to bring for payment and for insurance documentation?
Written answers give you something to show at the counter. Verbal assurances on arrival often do not survive contact with the queue.
Spotted something inaccurate? Tell me and it gets fixed.
Sources
Everything factual on this page traces to the following. Where a rule is time-limited or still in draft, that is stated in the entry.
Most of these are Chinese government or hospital pages. A few of them load slowly outside China, or refuse requests from non-Chinese networks. If a link does not open, search the document's title or its reference number — for example 鄂医保发〔2026〕22号 — and you will find the same document elsewhere.
- Inner Mongolia Health Commission — reply to CPPCC proposal No. 0739, on medical-access channels for overseas Chinese and foreign nationals (dated 2 July 2025; published 7 November 2025) — a regional instruction, not a national one: all tier-2-and-above hospitals in Inner Mongolia to complete online booking platform upgrades by end-June 2025, adding entry-and-exit documents (passport, foreign permanent-resident ID card) as accepted identity options, and to set up dedicated foreign-patient service windows. It cites the national 关于推动出入境证件便利化应用的工作方案 as the framework
- Chongqing Medical University First Hospital — registration process for foreign patients — a hospital's own published instructions: passport selected as the identity document type in the WeChat booking system, and first-time foreign patients collecting their ticket at the staffed counter
- Study in China (Chinaservicesinfo) — guide to hospital visits in China for international students — real-name registration under passport may require manual verification, advised 1–3 days ahead; mandatory kiosk check-in; English names may not appear on display screens
- National Health Commission — regulation on medical institutions — the framework under which hospitals operate separate registration tiers (普通门诊 / 专家门诊 / 特需门诊) and international departments
Reviewed 2026-09-20.
A note on what is not sourced here. English-language guides frequently quote figures such as the proportion of tier-3A hospitals with a digital patient portal, or the proportion that accept foreign identity documents. We could not trace those figures to any official publication — they appear to originate with commercial coordination agencies. This page therefore describes the situation instead of quantifying it.
This page is informational only and is not medical advice. Registration procedures differ between cities and between hospitals, and change without notice — always confirm with the specific hospital you plan to visit. Last reviewed: 2026-09-20.