Unlike much of Europe there is no single number. China splits emergencies across four services, and calling the wrong one costs time you may not have.
The four numbers#
| Service | Number |
|---|---|
| Police | 110 |
| Ambulance / medical | 120 |
| Fire and rescue | 119 |
| Traffic accidents | 122 |
They are free, they work from any mobile phone including one without a working SIM, and they are the same across the mainland. Hong Kong and Macau are separate systems and use 999.
The language problem, and what to do about it#
This is the part that matters more than memorising the digits. Operators on 110 and 120 rarely speak English outside a handful of major-city control rooms, and an emergency call is the worst possible moment to discover it.
In order of what actually works:
- Hand the phone to someone. Hotel reception, a restaurant manager, a shop assistant, the person next to you. Chinese bystanders are generally quick to help with this and it is by far the fastest route to a dispatched ambulance.
- Ask your hotel to call. If you are anywhere near your accommodation, front desk staff will do it and can give the address correctly, which is the part a translation app handles worst.
- Have your location written in Chinese. A screenshot of your hotel's address in characters, or a dropped pin, does more good than any phrase you can learn. Street names transliterated into English are frequently not understood.
- 12301 is the national tourism hotline and operates in English as well as Chinese. It is for complaints, disputes and travel assistance, not for a medical emergency — but it is genuinely useful for the tier of problem below one.
An offline translation pack on your phone is worth setting up before you need it, because the moment you need it may also be the moment your connection fails.
Ambulances are not always the fastest option#
Worth knowing before you are deciding under pressure: in dense city traffic a DiDi to a hospital emergency department is often quicker than waiting for 120, and Chinese hospitals expect walk-ins. Large cities have hospitals with international or VIP departments where English is spoken and payment by card is normal.
Ambulance services are typically billed, and payment is usually expected at the point of care rather than afterwards. This is one of the specific reasons travel insurance is worth having for China even though the country is, day to day, a very safe place to travel.
Other numbers worth having#
- 12315 — consumer complaints, including overcharging disputes
- 12308 — the Chinese foreign ministry's consular protection line, for Chinese citizens abroad; your own embassy's emergency line is the equivalent for you, and is worth saving before you fly
- Your embassy or consulate — for a lost passport, an arrest, or a death. Save the number for the city you are in, not just the capital
Before you go#
Save 110, 120 and your embassy's line in your phone. Photograph your passport's data page and your visa, and keep the images somewhere reachable without the passport itself. Write your hotel's address in Chinese characters into your notes app.
None of this takes ten minutes, and all of it is far easier to do at home than in the situation that needs it. The health and safety guide covers insurance, hospitals, common scams and what is genuinely worth worrying about.