Short answer
China does not have one emergency number. Dial 110 for police, 119 for fire and rescue, 120 for an ambulance, and 122 for a traffic accident. All four are free. There is no 911.
Expect Chinese on the line for 110, 119 and 120. English support exists mainly in tourist areas and bigger cities. The one number that reliably has English is 12308, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular protection hotline, open around the clock; from outside China it is 0086-10-12308.
Have three things ready before you dial: your location in Chinese — hotel name or the nearest metro station and exit letter — the number of people involved, and whether anyone is injured. Your hotel's business card, taken from reception on the first morning, solves the hardest of those.
The numbers
Only the first four are emergency dispatch lines. The rest are helplines, useful but not staffed for a crisis in progress.
| Situation | Number | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Police, crime, personal safety, public order | 110 | Free. Free line, dispatched to nearest patrol |
| Fire, rescue, gas leak, trapped people | 119 | Free. Covers rescue beyond fire |
| Ambulance, medical emergency | 120 | Free to call, paid service afterwards |
| Traffic accident (traffic police) | 122 | Free. Add 120 if anyone is hurt |
| Police report by SMS, when talking is unsafe | 12110 | Text line, Chinese language |
| Maritime search and rescue | 12395 | Coastal and inland water incidents |
| Consular protection for foreigners | 12308 | 24h, Mandarin and English, from abroad 0086-10-12308 |
| Directory assistance | 114 | Chinese-language number lookups |
| Government service hotline, non-emergency | 12345 | Complaints, municipal services, tourist disputes |
| Consumer complaints | 12315 | Overcharging, fake goods, tour operator disputes |
| Railway enquiries and bookings | 12306 | Official China Railway service |
What happens when you dial 110
A dispatcher picks up quickly, takes the location and the nature of the incident, and sends the nearest patrol. Officers arrive, and they may use a translation app or ask a colleague with English to handle you. In tourist districts, basic English is common; outside those districts, assume no English at all.
Two behaviours are worth knowing before you call. First, the dispatcher will ask where you are before anything else — a call with no location is close to useless. Second, you may be redirected or asked to come to the police station in person to file the report. For anything you need on paper, the station visit is what produces the document; the phone call produces the officer.
What happens when you dial 120
The 120 line covers medical emergencies nationally. In Beijing there is also a 999 line for ambulance services, a legacy of the city's separate emergency system; 120 remains the standard route and works everywhere. If a number did not connect, dial 120.
An ambulance is a paid service. The charge is set by the city and varies with distance and the level of care, and it is typically settled at the hospital. Travel insurance is what covers it in practice, so keep your policy number and your insurer's assistance line somewhere that works offline.
For a non-life-threatening problem, a taxi to the hospital is often faster than waiting for dispatch, particularly at peak hour in a large city. International departments at major hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou handle English-speaking patients; your embassy and your insurer both publish lists of them, and those lists are the version worth saving.
The phrases that matter
You do not need Chinese to call for help, but three or four sentences change the outcome of the call. Save these as a screenshot or a note on your phone — the point is not pronunciation, it is being able to show or read the right line under pressure.
| Chinese | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 救命！ | jiùmìng | Help! |
| 我需要警察 | wǒ xūyào jǐngchá | I need the police |
| 我需要救护车 | wǒ xūyào jiùhùchē | I need an ambulance |
| 有人受伤了 | yǒu rén shòushāng le | Someone is injured |
| 我在 ___ | wǒ zài ___ | I am at ___ |
| 这是我的酒店，地址在这里 | zhè shì wǒ de jiǔdiàn, dìzhǐ zài zhèlǐ | This is my hotel, the address is here |
| 我不会说中文 | wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén | I do not speak Chinese |
Describing your location
Chinese addresses run from large to small: city, then district, then street, then building number, then floor and unit. Read them in that order, not the order you would use in English.
If you have no address, use a landmark. The metro station name plus the exit letter is the most precise thing most visitors can produce — Exit 3 of the station next to my hotel beats a street name you mispronounce. A hotel name is next best, because dispatch can call the front desk and the front desk can find you. A mall, a temple, a stadium or a Starbucks inside a shopping centre all work as anchors.
A pin dropped in your map app, read out as coordinates, is a workable fallback in a city with no recognisable landmarks. And keep the hotel's business card in Chinese in your wallet — that is the single cheapest piece of insurance for this whole page. Registration rules for where you are staying sit in hotels that accept foreign guests.
Reporting a theft so an insurance claim survives
The report is the slow part, and it is the part insurers and embassies both ask for. A stolen phone, a snatched bag at a market and a pickpocketing on the metro all follow the same route.
- Cancel the financial damage firstCall your bank and freeze cards, and suspend your phone line through your carrier or eSIM provider. Money moves faster than paperwork.
- Go to the police station with jurisdictionThat means the station covering the place the theft happened, not the one nearest your hotel. Hotels will tell you which station it is, and sometimes send someone with you.
- Bring the right documentsYour passport, a photocopy of it, and — if you have them — receipts, warranty cards and photos of the stolen items. Serial numbers make a claim far easier to settle.
- Ask for the written record and keep itRequest a written receipt or report of the case. The formal case document can take a few days, so take the receipt on the first visit and return to the same station to follow up. Ask for the Chinese version and keep a translation alongside it.
- Get the paper before you leave the cityChasing a document from another province, or after you have flown home, is where claims die. Do it while you are still there.
- Send everything to your insurer immediatelyMost policies have a notification window measured in days, and they want the police document, the itemised list and the original receipts together.
If the loss involves your passport, the police receipt starts a longer chain of paperwork that runs to your embassy and then to the local Exit and Entry Administration.
Your embassy: what to save and what to expect
Save two numbers from your embassy's own website before departure: the main switchboard and the 24-hour duty line for citizens in trouble. Do not rely on a number from a third-party blog, including this page — consular numbers change, and the embassy site is the only version that stays current.
An embassy can issue a replacement passport or an emergency travel document, contact your family, and hand you lists of English-speaking lawyers, hospitals and interpreters. An embassy cannot investigate a crime, recover property, pay a bill, or get you out of a legal process in China. Knowing that in advance saves an hour of a bad afternoon.
China's own 12308 line fills part of that gap for anyone, foreign or not: it is a 24-hour Ministry of Foreign Affairs hotline with English speakers, and it works as a referral and escalation service. It is not a dispatch centre — for anything life-threatening, call 110, 119 or 120 first, and 12308 afterwards.
Set up before you fly
- Save 110, 119, 120, 122 and 12308 in your contacts with names you will recognise at 3am. Do it in the airport, not in the moment.
- Save your embassy duty number from the official embassy website. Both, main line and after-hours line.
- Store your insurance policy number and assistance line offline. A PDF on the phone plus a photo in your camera roll.
- Photograph your passport data page, visa and entry stamp and keep the photos in cloud storage separate from the phone in your pocket. Copies of your identification are the foundation of every replacement process — see entry requirements for China for what the documents are and when they get checked.
- Install a translation app with offline Chinese and a map app with offline city data. The setup order and the ones that work without a VPN are in the apps to install before China.
- Keep a working phone number. An active SIM or eSIM is what lets dispatch call you back and what lets a hospital reach you — eSIM options for China covers the data side.
- Carry ¥300–500 in small notes. Hospitals, taxis and pharmacies take cash when a QR code fails, and a power cut or a dead battery is exactly when you want it. See cash and ATMs in China.
- Take the hotel's business card in Chinese every morning. Free, and it is your address for the rest of the day.
Frequently asked questions
What is the emergency number in China?
There is no single number covering everything. Dial 110 for police, 119 for fire and rescue, 120 for an ambulance, and 122 for a traffic accident. The three most used numbers, 110, 119 and 120, are free to call. Foreigners can also dial 12308, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular protection hotline, which is staffed around the clock and has English speakers.
Do Chinese emergency operators speak English?
Usually not on 110, 119 or 120. Expect Chinese on the emergency lines, with English support concentrated in tourist areas and major cities. The 12308 consular hotline does offer English. The practical workaround is a translation app, a Chinese speaker standing next to you, or a scripted sentence about your location that you can read out loud.
How do I tell an operator where I am if I cannot read the street signs?
Give the address in Chinese and in the order used locally: city, district, street, building number. If you do not have an address, describe the nearest landmark — a metro station and exit letter, a hotel name, a mall, a pagoda, a KFC or a Starbucks. A pin dropped in a map app and read out as coordinates is a workable fallback. Carrying the hotel business card in Chinese solves this before it starts.
Is calling an ambulance in China free?
No. An ambulance is a paid service billed by the city, and the charge varies with distance and with the level of care provided. Travel insurance is what normally covers it, so keep your policy number and a phone line for your insurer available offline. Check the official channel for the fee in the city you are in, and confirm coverage with your insurer before you claim.
Can I call 110 from a phone with no SIM card or no balance?
The main emergency numbers are free to call and do not depend on a data plan, and they commonly connect from a phone without an active line. Whether a specific handset will dial them from a locked screen varies by manufacturer and network, so treat it as likely rather than guaranteed. A working local SIM or eSIM keeps the whole process, including callbacks, much easier.
Will the police give me a report I can use for an insurance claim?
You can request one. Report the theft at the police station with jurisdiction over the place it happened and ask for a written record of the report. Bring your passport, an itemised list of what was taken with values and serial numbers, and any receipts or photos of the items. Formal case documents can take a few days to issue, so get the receipt at the first visit and follow up at the same station. Ask for the document in Chinese and keep a translation.
Can my embassy get my stolen property back or pay for my flight home?
No. An embassy can replace a passport or issue an emergency travel document, contact your family, and give you a list of local lawyers, hospitals and interpreters. It cannot investigate a crime, pay a hotel bill, refund a loss or intervene in a Chinese legal case. Save your embassy duty phone number from the official embassy website before you travel, not after something happens.
What is 12308?
It is the consular protection hotline run by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it assists foreign nationals as well as Chinese citizens. It runs around the clock and staff speak Mandarin and English. From outside China the number is 0086-10-12308. It is a helpline and a referral service, not an emergency dispatch centre, so for anything life-threatening dial 110, 119 or 120 as well.
Should I dial 122 or 110 for a road accident?
Either reaches police. 122 is the traffic police line and is the direct route for a collision with no injuries or for a dispute over fault. If anyone is hurt, dial 120 for an ambulance as well, and call 110 if the situation is unsafe or the other driver is aggressive. For a minor scrape, move the vehicles clear of traffic first if it is safe to do so, and photograph everything.
What number do I call for a stolen passport?
Dial 110 if the passport was stolen, and report it at the police station covering the location, the same day. The police receipt starts the paper trail that your embassy and the local Exit and Entry Administration will both ask for. Replacements and exit documents run through official channels only, and nobody legitimate charges a fee to speed that up.
Related reading
The two tasks that pair with this page: get a phone that works the moment you land, and get the apps that still function when the internet is not cooperating — see essential apps for China and cash and ATMs in China.
Compiled from published emergency number tables for China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular protection guidance, municipal public security guidance on reporting losses and thefts, and visitor accounts from 2025–2026, cross-checked 30 September 2026. Emergency numbers are stable, but hospital fees, embassy contact details and the availability of English-speaking staff change and vary by city — the number published by your embassy and the guidance from the local public security bureau are the authoritative versions. Nothing on this page is medical, financial or legal advice.