What to do when something has happened

The first thing to do in any situation

Work out whether life is at risk. If it is — 120 or 110 first, everything else afterwards.

Fix where you are: a screenshot of the map with a pin and the Chinese address. It is the first thing both the police and the ambulance will ask.

Send your location to someone who knows about your trip. In WeChat that is one tap through the attachment button in a chat.

Do not leave the scene before they arrive if it is an accident or a crime.

You’ve lost your passport

1. 1

   Go to the police straight away

   Go to the nearest police station or call 110. Reporting the loss is a compulsory first step: without the police report the consulate cannot issue a travel document.

   Take the report and photograph it straight away — you will need it more than once.

2. 2

   Then to the consulate

   Contact your country’s diplomatic mission for your consular district. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou each cover different regions — which one is yours is shown in the “Emergency numbers” tool on this site.

   You will need: the police report, photographs, any copies of the lost passport and proof of identity.

3. 3

   Restore your residence status

   Your visa or residence permit was in the lost passport, and it has to be reissued too, at the exit-entry administration. Without that you will not be able to leave the country.

4. 4

   Renew your address registration

   With a new document the registration has to be done again. This is the step people forget most often.

You’ve lost your phone

In China your phone is also your money, your documents and your connection, so the order is: lock access first, look for it afterwards.

From any other device, sign in to your account, switch on lost mode and lock the payment apps. Alipay and WeChat both allow you to freeze the account, through their websites and their hotlines.

Block the SIM with your operator: confirmation codes are tied to the Chinese number, and someone else having access to it is more dangerous than losing the handset.

Report it to the police if the phone was stolen: the report is needed by the insurer and sometimes to restore the number.

A Chinese number can be restored at the operator’s shop with your passport — the same one it was registered to.

Theft and scams

For theft — 110 and a report. Write down the time, the place and the circumstances; busy places almost always have cameras, and they genuinely help.

The usual scams aimed at visitors: a “tea ceremony” with an enormous bill at the end, a “student practising her English”, an invitation to a bar with inflated prices, a stranger offering to help you buy a ticket. They share one feature — someone approaches you first, in the street.

If the bill turns out to be wildly out of proportion, do not pay quietly — call the police yourself. It works: in that situation the venue has more to lose than you do.

Requests to “move your money to a safe account” supposedly from the police or your bank are a scam. Real institutions never do this.

Your card has been blocked

First work out what actually happened: a declined transaction, a block by the bank or an anti-fraud trigger. The bank’s app usually shows which.

Contact the bank directly on the number printed on the back of the card — not on a number from an SMS. Telling the bank about the trip in advance prevents most of these blocks.

While the card is down you can pay through Alipay with another linked card, in cash, or by asking someone to pay and transferring the money to them.

Keep a reserve in cash and a second card from a different bank — a rule that pays off exactly once, but completely.

A road accident

1. 1

   If anyone is hurt — 120 and 110

   Ambulance and police. Do not move the vehicles before they arrive unless leaving them creates a hazard.

2. 2

   If nobody is hurt — 122

   Traffic police. Photograph the position of the cars, the damage, the plates and the surroundings before anything is moved.

3. 3

   Do not agree to settle it verbally

   “Let’s settle it here” with nothing written down leaves you without a document for the insurer and without protection if the other side later changes their story.

4. 4

   Tell the insurer and the rental company

   If the car is a rental, do it immediately — they have their own deadlines and their own procedure.

You’ve fallen ill

If life is at risk — 120. For ordinary illness it is faster and simpler to go to a hospital’s outpatient department: no referral is needed and you are seen in turn with a numbered ticket.

Bring your passport, your insurance policy and a phone with money on it: at a Chinese hospital you normally pay before the procedure.

Large cities have international departments and clinics with English-speaking staff — dearer, but without the language barrier. Find the address of the nearest one in advance, not in the middle of an attack.

Keep every receipt and report: without them the insurer will not reimburse you.

Keep to hand

The numbers 110, 120, 119 and 122, plus your consulate’s phone number — in your contacts, not in your head.

Your home address in Chinese characters and a pin on the map.

Photos of your passport, visa, registration and insurance policy stored on your phone.

The number of someone back home who knows your itinerary — and an agreement that you check in once a day.

This site has an “Emergency numbers” tool and an urgent-help button: both are faster than searching for this text.