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Start here: Pause sightseeing and focus on the help path.
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Support
What should tourists do if they lose a passport in China?
In short
Treat it as a support problem, not a sightseeing problem: contact local police or hotel support, reach the relevant embassy or consulate, keep copies offline, and pause onward bookings until document steps are clear.
Behind this answer
Official source: China National Immigration Administration
Official source: CDC China traveler health page (read May 3, 2026)
Editorial check
Reviewed as a concise travel answer
Support answers were reviewed with the visitor safety and local support source checks.
- Information checked
The traveler's embassy or consulate, local police or hotel guidance, airline rules, and immigration requirements for replacement travel documents. Emergency procedures, support numbers, insurance handling, consular instructions, and provider rules still need current official confirmation.
Recovery template
Use the answer as a recovery path, not just a reading page
Start with the immediate move, keep a human or offline fallback, and only rely on live rules after checking the official operator, provider, or source.
Open support backupFallback path
Use hotel staff, official emergency numbers, insurer contacts, embassy or consulate support, and saved document copies before improvising alone.
Do not assume
Do not treat this answer as final live proof. Do not use as emergency instructions replacing official, hotel, insurer, police, embassy, consular, or operator guidance.
Source boundary
The traveler's embassy or consulate, local police or hotel guidance, airline rules, and immigration requirements for replacement travel documents.
Action path
What to do next
A practical answer should leave the traveler with a few moves they can actually make before the trip or at the point of friction.
1
Pause sightseeing and focus on the help path.
2
Use hotel, official, insurer, or consular help before making new bookings.
3
Keep document copies and emergency contacts offline.
Official source
What an official source actually states
These facts are read straight from the operator's own page, so you can check each one at the source rather than take it on our word.
The lawful place to fix it is the local exit-entry police, not the hotel desk
A foreign visitor already in China whose ordinary visa or stay/residence document is lost, stolen or damaged must apply to reissue it at the exit-entry administration of the county-level-or-above local public security organ (公安机关出入境管理机构) where they are staying. Article 35 names that office outright — the exact authority the page's vague “contact local police or hotel support” never did.
Where in the source: Article 35 (第三十五条): “外国人入境后，所持的普通签证、停留居留证件损毁、遗失、被盗抢……应当按照规定向停留居留地县级以上地方人民政府公安机关出入境管理机构提出申请。”
By law the lost document is void, so a reissue is mandatory, not optional
A lost, stolen or damaged visa or stay/residence document is declared void by the authority that issued it. That is the legal reason you cannot keep travelling on the old document, why a fresh one must be issued, and why a stranger who finds it cannot lawfully use it either.
Where in the source: Article 67 (第六十七条): “签证、外国人停留居留证件等出境入境证件发生损毁、遗失、被盗抢……由签发机关宣布该出境入境证件作废。”
This is a named, dated national law, not travel-blog guidance
The rule sits in the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People's Republic of China (Presidential Order No. 57), in force since 1 July 2013 — a source with a real title and effective date you can cite, in place of the uncited “immigration requirements” the page pointed at before.
Where in the source: Law masthead: 主席令第五十七号 (Presidential Order No. 57), effective 2013-07-01
Source: National Immigration Administration (国家移民管理局), official full text of the national law (www.nia.gov.cn) — 中华人民共和国出境入境管理法 (Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People's Republic of China) (source 主席令第五十七号 (Presidential Order No. 57), in force 2013-07-01; read August 10, 2026)
You must already hold a replacement passport before China will reissue the visa
To reissue a Chinese visa after a passport is lost or stolen, the guide requires you to submit a police passport-loss report (护照报失证明) OR your own country's mission's note (所属国驻华使领馆照会), AND a new valid passport or other international travel document. That fixes the order the page never stated: report the loss and get a replacement passport from your embassy first, then the Chinese visa is reissued onto the new document.
Where in the source: Reissue-after-loss materials clause: “应当提交本人护照报失证明或者所属国驻华使领馆照会以及新的有效护照或者其他国际旅行证件。”
A damaged (not lost) passport follows a slightly different document rule
If the passport is damaged rather than lost, you show the damaged passport (or the mission's 照会) plus a new valid passport or other international travel document — the guide separates the damaged case from the lost-or-stolen case.
Where in the source: Damaged-document materials clause: “应当出示损毁护照或者所属国驻华使领馆照会以及新的有效护照或者其他国际旅行证件。”
The reissue decision runs up to seven working days
The reception receipt for a visa or document application is valid for no more than seven working days from the day it is accepted — a concrete window to plan around, in place of the unspecified wait the page left open.
Where in the source: Processing-time clause: “签证证件申请的受理回执有效期自受理之日起不超过7个工作日。”
Source: National Immigration Administration Government Service Platform (国家移民管理局政务服务平台, s.nia.gov.cn) — 外国人签证延期、换发、补发审批服务指南 (Service Guide for Approval of Foreigners' Visa Extension / Change / Reissue) (source service guide dated 2019-03-13; read August 10, 2026)
What this source does not settle: This layer states only what Chinese law and the National Immigration Administration's own service guide require of a foreign visitor after a lost, stolen or damaged passport in China — which office reissues the stay document, that the old one is void by law, the documents to bring, and the up-to-seven-working-day handling window. It does not govern the embassy step of getting a replacement passport or emergency travel document (each country's mission sets that; on this page that stays operational advice, not a cited Chinese rule); neither page opened published a fee, so no cost figure is stated; and it does not promise any individual application is approved or any timeframe met.
Current checks
What keeps this answer useful
Recheck consular, police-report, airline, and exit-document guidance regularly.
Source focus
- Embassy or consulate emergency passport pages
- Local police and hotel help paths
- Airline and immigration requirements for replacement documents
Traveler checks
- Pause onward bookings until document requirements are clear.
- Use hotel support to find the correct police or consular path.
- Keep passport copy, visa page, insurance, and flight details offline.
Update triggers
- Consular appointment or emergency-document process changes
- Police-report requirements change
- Airline boarding rules for replacement documents change
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