Arriving in China: Registration, SIM and the First 24 Hours

01Two Clocks Start

What has to be done on the first day in China?

Most of what you do on the first day can be done in any order. Two things cannot. One is a legal deadline that begins the moment you put your bag down somewhere that is not a hotel. The other is a dependency: several Chinese apps verify a new account by text message, so the account you meant to set up on arrival stalls at a verification screen if nothing in your phone can receive a Chinese text.

This page is about those two and the small decisions around them. It does not cover visas, which sit on the Visa and Permits page, and it does not cover what to see. It covers where your document is checked on the way in, who files your registration and by when, how a phone number is issued against a foreign passport, and what order to do these in so that each step has what it needs.

Everything here is located by article number or by the office that publishes it. Where no official source exists for a number, the number is written as a band with the year it was observed, and it says so. Prices at a phone counter move, and a page that pretends otherwise is worse than no page.

02The Hotel Files It

Does a hotel in China register foreign guests with the police?

Article 39 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law has two paragraphs, and the first one is the one that costs a visitor nothing. A hotel that accepts a foreign guest registers that guest and submits the record to the police. This happens at the front desk while your passport is being copied, and it is the reason the desk asks for the passport itself instead of a photo of it.

What this means for your trip: if every night of your trip is in a hotel, this page's deadline never applies to you. You hand over the passport, they scan it, the filing is done. Licensed guesthouses booked through a platform usually register arriving guests the same way.

The passport has to be the original. A copy on your phone is not accepted for the registration step, though it is worth having for other purposes. The one thing worth confirming at check-in is that the desk has actually filed the record and not only copied the page, because a small guesthouse in a smaller city occasionally has to send someone to the station with it.

03Twenty-Four Hours

What is the 24-hour registration rule for staying in a private home in China?

The second paragraph of the same article covers everything that is not a hotel: a friend's spare room, a rented flat, a private apartment booked by the night. In those cases you or your host file the registration with the public security organ where you are actually staying, within twenty-four hours of moving in. It is the same article as the hotel rule, and the obligation moves to you because there is no front desk to carry it.

The clock does not pause overnight. Landing at 23:00 and sleeping until noon spends half of the window. In practice that makes the filing a first-morning task if your first night is private accommodation.

Booking through a platform does not automatically move the obligation. The law names two categories, hotels and everything else, and does not name platforms. A licensed guesthouse usually registers you; a private flat rented by the night usually does not. The way to find out is to ask the host before you fly whether they will file, or whether the two of you walk to the station together. City-level practice varies here, and this page locates the article without predicting how any given district applies it.

Article 76, paragraph 1, item 6 sets the penalty: a warning, and in serious cases a fine of RMB 1,000 to 5,000. The host is exposed under the same clause, which is worth knowing because it explains why a host who has done this before will bring it up first.

04Where to File

Where do you file accommodation registration in China, and what do you bring?

The place is the local police station of the neighbourhood where you sleep, or the exit-and-entry service window of the municipal public security bureau. If you are staying with a friend, the friend is the host under the law, and the friend goes to their own local station rather than to one in another district.

Since 20 March 2026 the National Immigration Administration has run an online filing pilot in seven provinces and municipalities: Hebei 河北, Liaoning 辽宁, Zhejiang, Hubei 湖北, Guangxi 广西, Chongqing 重庆 and Sichuan 四川. Inside those seven, you or your host can file through the NIA service website or the 12367 mini-program 小程序 without walking in. Outside them, the in-person route is the default. A pilot list is the kind of thing that grows, so check the NIA site instead of trusting this sentence a year from now.

What to bring. Your passport original is the anchor. If the host files for you, the host brings their own ID as well. For a rented flat, that means the landlord's ID and the lease contract; for owned property, the property certificate. Stations ask for slightly different extra papers city by city, so the useful move is a phone call to the station first, or asking the host to make it.

The filing itself takes minutes once you are at the window. What takes time is finding the right station and arriving during its hours, which is the argument for doing it in the morning.

05Getting a Number

How does a foreign visitor get a Chinese SIM card?

A Chinese mobile number is issued against a passport in person, and the counter takes a facial scan as part of the real-name registration. Nobody can pick one up on your behalf. One passport covers up to five numbers.

Three carriers, and the difference is smaller than the internet suggests. China Mobile has the widest rural coverage, China Unicom usually has the most English-speaking staff at airport counters, and China Telecom is strongest in the south. Inside a first-tier city the practical difference between them is small.

Where to buy matters more than which one. The arrivals-hall counters at Beijing Capital, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou 广州 Baiyun, Chengdu 成都 Tianfu and Shenzhen 深圳 Bao'an sell a tourist SIM and activate it while you wait; their plans are short and priced for visitors. City stores carry a longer list and lower prices, though not every branch handles foreign passports, and it is worth calling 10086 for Mobile, 10010 for Unicom or 10000 for Telecom before making the trip. Small street kiosks usually cannot complete the passport step at all, which is the one way to lose an hour here.

Prices, as a band and not as a tariff. Tourist prepaid plans observed in 2026 cluster around RMB 50 to 100 for seven days, RMB 100 to 150 for fifteen days, and RMB 150 to 250 for thirty days of domestic data, each with a small call allowance. The Chongqing 重庆 municipal government confirms that seven-day and fifteen-day short-term cards with automatic cancellation exist. No national official price page was located, so treat these as numbers to check at the counter.

06eSIM and the SMS Problem

Does an eSIM work in China, and can it receive verification codes?

An eSIM bought before departure gives you data the moment the plane lands, and that is genuinely useful. Products sold abroad ride on the same three carrier networks as data-only lines. What they usually do not give you is a phone number, which means they usually cannot receive a text message.

That is the whole problem. WeChat 微信, Alipay 支付宝, 12306 and the ride-hailing apps verify a new account by sending a one-time code by SMS. A data-only line has nowhere for that code to arrive, so the registration you planned to do in the taxi stops at the verification screen.

The fix has two halves, and the first one happens before you fly. Register WeChat and Alipay and link your foreign card while you are still on your home network with your own number working normally. Then keep your home SIM in the phone with international roaming switched on for SMS while data roaming stays off, so codes can still reach you without a data bill. If you would rather roam for data as well, your home carrier sets that price and Chinese carriers do not publish it, so the number to ask for is theirs.

A mainland eSIM with a +86 number does exist. Official carrier stores issue eSIM profiles to foreign passport holders on supported phones, though the supported-device list is not the same as the list your home market uses. Getting one still means standing in a store, so it saves nothing over a plastic card on arrival.

07Where Documents Are Checked

Where is a passport actually checked between the airport and the city?

Between the aircraft door and your first night there is exactly one mandatory document check, and it is border inspection. You hand over the passport with the visa or the visa-free entry, plus an arrival card. Since 2024 that card can be filled in the NIA app or mini-program 小程序 in advance and shown as a QR code at the desk, which is worth doing on the plane.

After that the checks thin out fast. Baggage claim has none. Customs is a green channel if you have nothing to declare and a red one if you do, with bags through an X-ray and no routine passport check on the channel itself.

Outside the controlled area, the pattern is that transport reads a payment method and not an identity. The metro and the airport rail links put your bag through a scanner at the entrance, and the gate reads a transit card or a bank card. A taxi or a ride-hailing car checks nothing.

The exception is the railway, which is real-name. An intercity train out of the airport, for example the Beijing to Xiong'an service from Daxing, reads the travel document you used when you bought the ticket. If that was your passport, that passport has to be the one in your hand at the gate. The Booking and Tickets page covers this at length, and it is the one document rule that follows you around the country.

08If You Intend to Drive

Can a foreign visitor drive in China?

A foreign driving licence is not valid on its own, and the thing that makes it work is applied for after you arrive. Holders of a foreign licence can apply for a Temporary Motor Vehicle Driving Permit at a vehicle management office. It is valid for three months for a short stay and extendable to a year for a stay longer than three months.

What to bring: the passport, the foreign licence with a Chinese translation, and two one-inch photographs. You sit through a road safety law session, and the permit is issued on the spot afterwards. This is a same-day procedure rather than a waiting one, which puts it in a different category from everything else on this page.

One deadline applies only to people bringing their own vehicle in. If the car crossed the border with you, the application is due within two days of entry.

What this means for your trip: driving is available and it is a decision to make at home. The translation of the licence is the part that is hard to arrange once you have landed, and the vehicle management office is a half-day. For a two-week trip built on trains and ride-hailing, the permit buys very little; for a trip whose point is a road in Xinjiang 新疆 or Yunnan 云南, it is the enabling document. The rules were published in the State Council gazette in 2025.

09The Order, and What Breaks

In what order should the first day in China be done?

• Before you fly. Register WeChat 微信 and Alipay 支付宝, link your foreign card, save the recovery codes. This runs on your home network with your home number receiving texts normally, which is the condition that stops being true later.
• At the port. Border inspection, passport out, arrival card ready.
• After customs. If you have landed at a major international airport, the carrier counter in the arrivals hall is the fastest place to get a number. Data here buys you maps, translation and the ride into town.
• At your first address. A hotel files for you. Anything else starts the twenty-four-hour clock.
• Within twenty-four hours. File the private-stay registration in person, or online if your province is in the pilot list.
• After you have a +86 number. Add it to the apps you registered before you flew. This is not a first-day task.
• Three ways the order goes wrong. Relying on a data-only eSIM alone leaves you able to browse and unable to receive a Chinese verification code, so app setup stalls. Sleeping the first night at a private flat before filing spends the window while you are asleep, and the filing is still owed the next morning. Trying a street kiosk for the SIM usually ends with an unfinished real-name step and a second trip to a proper counter.