How to Make a Phone Call in China: International, Domestic and Mobile Dialling Explained

First, understand that calling in China has three layers

Most visitors get stuck on their first call in China not because of language but because of number structure. The system has three layers: international calls going out, domestic long distance between cities, and local calls. Each uses a different prefix, and mixing them simply will not connect.

One sentence covers it: 00 to go abroad, 0 for another city, nothing for local. Below, the three layers are broken out, followed by the practical side — mobile phones, public phones and internet calling.

1. Calling internationally from China

The standard format is:

00 + country code + city code (drop the leading 0) + number

For example, calling Washington D.C. from China:

• US country code 1
• Washington area code 202
• Local number, 8 digits
• Full string: 00 1 202 XXXXXXX

A few more common ones:

Three easy mistakes:

• Never keep the leading 0 on the foreign city code. London is written locally as 020; from China you dial 20. This is the single most common error.
• Mobile numbers usually have no city code. In most countries the mobile number sits directly after the country code — a UK mobile is 00 44 7XXX XXXXXX.
• Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are international calls. From the mainland they all use the 00 prefix: Hong Kong, China 00 852, Macao, China 00 853, Taiwan, China 00 886. They are billed at international rates, not domestic.

2. Domestic long distance between Chinese cities

The domestic rule is simpler, but the leading 0 matters:

0 + city area code + number

The logic behind area codes is easy to remember:

• Two-digit codes belong to the municipalities and major regional centres — 010 Beijing, 021 Shanghai, 020 Guangzhou, 022 Tianjin, 023 Chongqing, 024 Shenyang, 025 Nanjing, 027 Wuhan, 028 Chengdu, 029 Xi'an. The entire 02X range is reserved for the country's most important cities.
• Three and four-digit codes are allocated by province, and cities in the same province usually share a range. The 07XX range covers central, southern and southwestern China; 09XX covers the northwest and part of the southwest.
• Only smaller cities use four-digit codes; the largest cities are all three digits.

On the numbers themselves: domestic landlines are usually 7 digits, while Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu use 8 digits. So a full out-of-town landline is either 3-digit code plus 8 digits, or 4-digit code plus 7 digits.

3. Calling from a mobile phone: different rules

Mobile dialling differs slightly from landline, and splits into two situations.

Situation one: a Chinese SIM calling within China

• Local number: dial it directly, no area code.
• Out-of-town landline: 0 + area code + number, same as a landline.
• Out-of-town mobile: dial the 11-digit number directly, no prefix. All Chinese mobile numbers start with 1 and are 11 digits long.

Situation two: a Chinese SIM calling abroad

You can dial 00 + country code + area code + number directly, but rates are high. A cheaper route is the carrier's IP long-distance access code, usually 17911 (China Unicom) or 17951 (China Mobile):

17911 + 00 + country code + area code + number

Using the same example: 17911 00 1 202 XXXXXXX. IP access is typically much cheaper than standard international rates, but you must have international calling enabled on the line and confirm the feature is active on the handset.

Worth noting: internet calling has largely overtaken IP dialling. WeChat voice, WhatsApp and Zoom all work free over data, quality is stable, and for most visitors they are the default. IP access codes now mainly cover cases where you must reach a fixed line or need a local number to display.

4. Are public phones still useful?

Honestly: street phone booths have effectively left daily use in China, and you should not build your plans around them. Two kinds of traditional phone remain worth knowing:

• The phone in your hotel room. Nearly every room has one and can usually dial out. Some upscale hotels give free local calls and charge for outside lines, settled at check-out.
• Service desks at airports, high-speed rail stations and large malls. Staff there generally speak enough English to help, which is far more practical than hunting for a booth.

If you genuinely need a public phone, the safest approach is to use one in a hotel lobby or airport and ask staff to help. One more tip: write down your local guide's and agency's emergency mobile numbers on paper and carry them. When your phone dies or goes missing, that piece of paper is worth more than anything else.

5. Receiving calls is a skill too

Visitors also run into the reverse problem: what to do with an unknown incoming call.

• Domestic Chinese calls usually show as an 11-digit mobile number or a landline beginning with 0. If it is your hotel, driver or guide, answer it.
• Unknown international calls outside 00 or +86, and marketing numbers starting 400 or 95, are best ignored. These are commonly sales or scam calls — especially anyone claiming to be an embassy, a courier or the police while asking for bank details.
• Real Chinese police never handle cases by phone, never ask you to transfer money and never ask for verification codes. Remember this one firmly.

6. A card to keep in your wallet

Write these lines on a card and keep it in your wallet — they cover almost every calling need in China:

• International: 00 + country code + area code (drop the 0) + number
• Domestic long distance: 0 + area code + number
• Domestic mobile: dial the 11 digits directly
• Hong Kong / Macao / Taiwan: 00 852 / 00 853 / 00 886
• Emergency: 110 police / 119 fire / 120 ambulance / 122 traffic
• Your hotel, guide and agency emergency numbers, with Chinese names alongside

One last honest point: travelling in China, you will make far fewer calls than you expect — tickets, rides, payments and ordering all happen inside apps. The moments that genuinely need a call are emergencies or situations requiring official coordination. Learn the lines above and let the apps and your local guide handle the rest.