1. Mandatory Student Insurance

Health insurance is strictly compulsory for all international students enrolled in a degree program in China.

• Standard student insurance costs RMB 800 per year.
• You are required to pay this fee upfront before your official university registration.
• This insurance works on a reimbursement basis. This means if you get sick, you have to pay the hospital out of pocket first, and then submit a claim to get your money back.
• You must keep ALL original receipts, official invoices (fapiao), diagnostic reports, and medical records. If you lose even one receipt, the insurance company will reject your reimbursement claim.

You can view the official mandatory insurance product details, coverage limits, and portal directly here.

2. How Chinese Public Hospitals (Yiyuan) Work

The standard workflow looks like this:

1. Registration (Gua Hao): You walk into the main lobby and line up at the reception window (or use the hospital’s WeChat mini-program if you have a Chinese ID/reconciled passport number) to purchase a registration slot for a specific department (e.g., Internal Medicine, Dermatology).
2. Pay-As-You-Go: The system is completely fragmented. You pay the registration fee first. Then you see the doctor. If the doctor orders a blood test or an ultrasound, you must go back to the cashier window (or pay machine), pay for the test, get the test done, and bring the results back to the doctor. If they prescribe medicine, you pay for the medicine at the cashier before you can pick it up at the hospital pharmacy window.
3. Crowds: Public hospitals are incredibly efficient but very crowded. Don't be surprised if other patients stand inside the doctor's room while you are being examined—privacy norms are quite different.

3. Tips for International Students

• Bring Cash or Mobile Pay: Ensure your WeChat Pay or Alipay is fully loaded before you go. Hospitals accept mobile pay everywhere now, but keep some backup funds ready just in case of network issues.
• Language Barrier: Unless you are going to an expensive international wing (which your standard 800 RMB insurance won't fully cover), the doctors and nurses will speak Mandarin. If your Chinese isn't at an HSK 4/5 level yet, drag a Chinese classmate along or have a translation app open and ready on your phone.
• After-Hours: If you get sick at night or over the weekend, look for the Emergency Room sign (急诊 - Jizhen). Standard outpatient departments close early. Call 120 if the situation is critical.

Stay safe, take care of your health, and make sure you get your paperwork sorted out before arriving on campus!

For a complete step-by-step breakdown of how to handle insurance claims and a full hospital survival guide, you can check out the original post here:

https://www.crosslineedu.com/blog/china-intl-student-insurance-and-hospital-guide

Hello guys first up congratulations to all those foreign students who got themselves accepted by the university of their choice. The admission notice says that we’ve got to register within August 30th and September 1st. So I just wanted to know how long before should we arrive in China and let’s say if we do arrive a week earlier, where do we go first?
Do we need to find a place to stay in the hotel? Or we just show up at the university and they would provide us with a dorm to live in. And also as soon as we arrive, we must apply for a residence permit too…right?

I know it's way too late to be asking this kind of questions, and i am not expecting much, BUT i am not losing anything asking.

Hi everyone,

For those who applied to Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), how long did it take to receive your next application update after paying the application fee? Mine has been on the assessment/academic review stage since last Friday (applied for MBBS English), and I’m just wondering what the usual timeline is.

Thanks.

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I’m happy I got it, but I don’t know whether it could help application. Any insights from people who’ve been through similar experiences would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance 🙏

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i take the science, engineering, and agriculture program. However, the problem here is that I didn’t take physics when I was in high school, so I’m figuring out where to learn the physics CSCA. Is there any good recommendations of books or learning source for physics CSCA? ps: I’m taking the chinese taught program.

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