| There is no day-count allowance: the ceiling is one prescription, and the border is a judgement This is the clause the whole page rests on, and it says three things worth reading twice. The quantity you may carry for your own treatment is 单张处方最大用量以内 — within the maximum quantity of a single prescription — so it is a quantity rule, not a number of days. The documents named are a 医疗诊断书 issued by a medical institution and your own 身份证明. And at the border the standard is 由海关根据自用、合理的原则放行: customs releases it applying a principle of personal use and reasonableness. That is a judgement customs makes, not an allowance you can claim by arriving under a published figure. | 因治疗疾病需要，个人凭医疗机构出具的医疗诊断书、本人身份证明，可以携带单张处方最大用量以内的麻醉药品和第一类精神药品；携带麻醉药品和第一类精神药品出入境的，由海关根据自用、合理的原则放行。 | 第四十四条 第一款 (Article 44, first paragraph)
《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》（国务院令第442号）
Regulations on the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, State Council Order No. 442
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| What one prescription may contain: narcotic drugs, one dose to seven days Article 44 above ties your carry ceiling to a single prescription; this is the article that says how much a single prescription may be. For narcotic drugs prescribed to an outpatient or emergency patient: injectables are one 常用量 (usual dose) per prescription, controlled-release and sustained-release preparations may not exceed 7日常用量, other formulations may not exceed 3日常用量. Two qualifiers the English summaries drop — the unit is 常用量, a usual dose rather than simply a day of supply, and the ceilings are written 为门（急）诊患者开具, for outpatient and emergency prescribing. | 为门（急）诊患者开具的麻醉药品注射剂，每张处方为一次常用量；控缓释制剂，每张处方不得超过7日常用量；其他剂型，每张处方不得超过3日常用量。 | 第二十三条 第一款 (Article 23, first paragraph)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| The same ceilings for Category I psychotropics — and the 15-day ADHD figure, in its own words Category I psychotropic substances carry the identical three ceilings, and then the paragraph names one medicine: 哌醋甲酯 (methylphenidate) prescribed for ADHD in children, 每张处方不得超过15日常用量. This page has shown that 15-day figure for a long time on the strength of a municipal customs answer; this is the article it comes from. Note what this paragraph is and is not evidence of: methylphenidate is named inside the Category I paragraph, which is why this page treats it as Category I — but the 药用类精神药品目录 itself was not opened this pass, so the classification is stated from this paragraph, not from the catalogue. | 第一类精神药品注射剂，每张处方为一次常用量；控缓释制剂，每张处方不得超过7日常用量；其他剂型，每张处方不得超过3日常用量。哌醋甲酯用于治疗儿童多动症时，每张处方不得超过15日常用量。 | 第二十三条 第二款 (Article 23, second paragraph)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
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| Category II psychotropics: generally seven days, extendable if the doctor writes down why The category most ordinary sleeping and anxiety medication falls into, and a number this page has never carried. A prescription for a Category II psychotropic substance generally may not exceed 7日常用量; for patients with a chronic disease or in certain special circumstances the quantity may be extended appropriately, provided the physician records the reason. Because Article 44 sets the carry ceiling at a single prescription's maximum, this paragraph is what sets that ceiling for Category II — the extension is a clinical decision made in China, not something you can assume at a border. | 第二类精神药品一般每张处方不得超过7日常用量；对于慢性病或某些特殊情况的患者，处方用量可以适当延长，医师应当注明理由。 | 第二十三条 第三款 (Article 23, third paragraph)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
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| Cancer pain and moderate-to-severe chronic pain get higher ceilings For outpatients with cancer pain or moderate-to-severe chronic pain the figures change: injectable narcotic drugs and Category I psychotropics may not exceed 3日常用量, controlled-release and sustained-release preparations 15日常用量, other formulations 7日常用量. A traveller in this group may lawfully hold — and therefore, under Article 44, carry — considerably more than the three-day figure this page's table implies for everyone else. | 为门（急）诊癌症疼痛患者和中、重度慢性疼痛患者开具的麻醉药品、第一类精神药品注射剂，每张处方不得超过3日常用量；控缓释制剂，每张处方不得超过15日常用量；其他剂型，每张处方不得超过7日常用量。 | 第二十四条 (Article 24)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
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| The document list behind “certificate of diagnosis”, and the hospital grade in it Where a narcotic drug or Category I psychotropic is needed long term, the prescribing doctor must examine the patient personally, open a medical record and take a signed informed-consent form, and keep copies of three documents: a diagnosis certificate from a 二级以上医院 (a secondary-grade or higher hospital), the patient's household register, identity card or other valid identity document, and the identity document of anyone collecting on their behalf. The hospital-grade requirement this page states without a source is in here. Scope caution: this article is written for long-term use by cancer-pain and chronic-pain outpatients, so it is not a general rule for every prescription. | 门（急）诊癌症疼痛患者和中、重度慢性疼痛患者需长期使用麻醉药品和第一类精神药品的，首诊医师应当亲自诊查患者，建立相应的病历，要求其签署《知情同意书》。病历中应当留存下列材料复印件：（一）二级以上医院开具的诊断证明；（二）患者户籍簿、身份证或者其他相关有效身份证明文件；（三）为患者代办人员身份证明文件。 | 第二十一条 (Article 21)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| Two named narcotics that cannot leave a hospital at any quantity Among the narcotic drugs needing especially strict control, 盐酸二氢埃托啡 (dihydroetorphine hydrochloride) is prescribed one usual dose at a time and may only be used inside a secondary-grade or higher hospital, and 盐酸哌替啶 (pethidine hydrochloride) is prescribed one usual dose at a time and may only be used inside a medical institution. For these two the answer is not a smaller quantity — there is no quantity that lawfully leaves the building, so there is nothing to carry to a border. | 对于需要特别加强管制的麻醉药品，盐酸二氢埃托啡处方为一次常用量，仅限于二级以上医院内使用；盐酸哌替啶处方为一次常用量，仅限于医疗机构内使用。 | 第二十六条 (Article 26)
《处方管理办法》（中华人民共和国卫生部令第53号）
Measures for the Administration of Prescriptions, Ministry of Health Order No. 53
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| Medical staff cross the border on a different document entirely Medical personnel carrying small quantities of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances across the border for medical need must hold a 携带麻醉药品和精神药品证明 issued by a drug regulatory department of a people's government at or above provincial level, and customs releases the medicine against that certificate. This is worth printing next to paragraph one because it marks where paragraph one stops: paragraph one is for a patient's own treatment, on a diagnosis certificate, and nothing else. | 医务人员为了医疗需要携带少量麻醉药品和精神药品出入境的，应当持有省级以上人民政府药品监督管理部门发放的携带麻醉药品和精神药品证明。海关凭携带麻醉药品和精神药品证明放行。 | 第四十四条 第二款 (Article 44, second paragraph)
《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》（国务院令第442号）
Regulations on the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, State Council Order No. 442
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| Since December 2024 the lists split medicinal from non-medicinal first Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are listed and controlled as 药用类 (medicinal) and 非药用类 (non-medicinal); the medicinal catalogue is drawn up, adjusted and published by the drug regulator together with the police and health authorities; and 第一类 and 第二类 exist only as a subdivision inside 药用类精神药品. Read that against how this topic is usually written up in English, including higher on this page: Category I versus Category II is presented as the top-level split, which was true of the pre-2024 text and is now one level short. | 麻醉药品和精神药品按照药用类和非药用类分类列管。药用类麻醉药品和精神药品目录由国务院药品监督管理部门会同国务院公安部门、国务院卫生主管部门制定、调整并公布。其中，药用类精神药品分为第一类精神药品和第二类精神药品。 | 第三条 第二款 (Article 3, second paragraph)
《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》（国务院令第442号）
Regulations on the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, State Council Order No. 442
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| This regulation does not itself govern import and export One short sentence that explains a gap on this page rather than filling it: the import and export of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is handled under the relevant separate laws. That is the textual reason Article 44 speaks only of customs 放行 for a personal carry and says nothing about an import procedure — and it is why this page still needs a customs-side instrument it could not open. The customs decree number the Chongqing customs answer names is repeated on this page as that answer's own citation; no article of it has been read here. | 麻醉药品和精神药品的进出口依照有关法律的规定办理。 | 第二条 第二款 (Article 2, second paragraph)
《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》（国务院令第442号）
Regulations on the Administration of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, State Council Order No. 442
Full text, read 2026-09-26 |
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| The 2005 clause that is explicitly about taking the medicine out of the hospital Closer to a traveller's situation than the 2007 article above, which is framed around long-term pain patients: where a non-injectable narcotic drug or a Category I psychotropic is to be used outside the medical institution, a doctor with prescribing authority may write the prescription only after the patient or their proxy produces the same three documents — a diagnosis certificate from a secondary-grade or higher hospital, the patient's household register, identity card or other identity document, and the proxy's identity document. Corroboration for the document list, from an instrument published twenty years earlier. | 麻醉药品非注射剂型和第一类精神药品需要带出医疗机构外使用时，具有处方权的医师在患者或者其代办人出示下列材料后方可开具麻醉药品、第一类精神药品处方：（一）二级以上医院开具的诊断证明；（二）患者户籍簿、身份证或者其他相关身份证明；（三）代办人员身份证明。 | 六 (Item 6)
《麻醉药品、精神药品处方管理规定》（卫医发〔2005〕436号）
Provisions on the Administration of Prescriptions for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Ministry of Health circular 436 of 2005
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| The one-dose, three-day, seven-day structure is twenty years old The 2005 predecessor of Article 23 carries the same three ceilings, written 用量 rather than 常用量: one dose for injectables, no more than three days for other formulations, no more than seven days for controlled-release and sustained-release preparations. Its next item caps Category II psychotropics at seven days as well. Two national instruments two decades apart agree on these figures, which is why this page treats them as settled rather than as one source's phrasing — but the live instrument is Order No. 53, and that is the one the rows above quote. | 麻醉药品、第一类精神药品注射剂处方为1次用量；其他剂型处方不得超过3日用量；控缓释制剂处方不得超过7日用量。 | 十 (Item 10)
《麻醉药品、精神药品处方管理规定》（卫医发〔2005〕436号）
Provisions on the Administration of Prescriptions for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Ministry of Health circular 436 of 2005
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| Which list decides whether your medicine is controlled in China, and its current edition The question under every sentence on this page is whether your medicine is on a Chinese list, and this announcement names the lists: 药用类麻醉药品目录（2025年版）and 药用类精神药品目录（2025年版）, made under Article 3 of State Council Order No. 442 by the drug regulator together with the police and the health commission, published and in force from the day of publication, 21 July 2025. Three things it settles for a traveller: the current edition is the 2025 one, not the 2013 edition most English-language pages still describe; the list is national, so your own country's scheduling is irrelevant to it; and the three bodies named are the ones to whose rules an appeal would run. | 根据《麻醉药品和精神药品管理条例》第三条规定，国家药监局、公安部、国家卫生健康委制定了药用类麻醉药品目录（2025年版）和药用类精神药品目录（2025年版）（见附件），现予以发布，自发布之日起施行。 | 公告正文 (announcement body)
《关于发布药用类麻醉药品和精神药品目录的公告》（国家药监局 公安部 国家卫生健康委公告2025年第55号）
Announcement publishing the Catalogue of Medicinal Narcotic Drugs and the Catalogue of Medicinal Psychotropic Substances (2025 edition) — National Medical Products Administration, Ministry of Public Security and National Health Commission, Announcement No. 55 of 2025
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| And why this page still quotes no row from it, including methylphenidate's The announcement publishes the two catalogues as attachments rather than as text on the page. This site downloaded both files from the drug regulator's own file server, so they are real and first-party, but no text could be extracted from them, which means nobody here has read the line that would place 哌甲酯 in Category I at catalogue level. That is why this page keeps saying methylphenidate is a Category I psychotropic substance on the authority of Article 23's second paragraph, which names it inside the Category I paragraph — and why the open-questions box still says no readable list of individual medicines has been found. | 附件：1.药用类麻醉药品目录（2025年版） 2.药用类精神药品目录（2025年版） | 附件清单 (list of attachments)
《关于发布药用类麻醉药品和精神药品目录的公告》（国家药监局 公安部 国家卫生健康委公告2025年第55号）
Announcement publishing the Catalogue of Medicinal Narcotic Drugs and the Catalogue of Medicinal Psychotropic Substances (2025 edition) — National Medical Products Administration, Ministry of Public Security and National Health Commission, Announcement No. 55 of 2025
Full text, read 2026-10-06 |
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| The customs test is reasonable personal use — and going over it means cargo formalities, not seizure The customs-side twin of Article 44's 自用、合理 standard, now with an article number of its own: baggage must meet the requirement of 合理自用, and a quantity above that is handled 按照货物办理海关手续 — as cargo, with cargo formalities. Worth reading twice, because the thing travellers brace for is confiscation. The measure's default for an over-quantity is a procedure, not a penalty. | 进出境行李物品应当符合合理自用的要求；超过合理自用数量的，按照货物办理海关手续。 | 第五条 (Article 5)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| How medication enters the customs rules at all: limits set elsewhere, plus the documents This is the hook, and the chain matters more than the sentence. The decree never says 药品. A controlled medicine is baggage under 国家限制性管理规定, so this paragraph requires two things of you: meet the 限额、限量 — which for narcotic drugs and Category I psychotropics is Article 44's 单张处方最大用量以内, set by the regulation above, not by customs — and hand over 许可证件以及其他证明材料, which for this page means the 医疗诊断书 and your identity document named in that same article. Anyone telling you the customs decree sets a medicine allowance has not read it. | 进出境人员携带国家限制性管理规定的行李物品进出境的，应当符合限额、限量要求，依法提交许可证件以及其他证明材料。 | 第六条 第三款 (Article 6, third paragraph)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| If your medicine needs documents, written declaration is mandatory, not advisable The single most actionable line on this page for an adult arriving with methylphenidate. Written declaration to customs is required where you carry restricted items over the 限额、限量 or items for which permits and supporting documents must be submitted. Read with Article 6's third paragraph that means: if your medication needs a diagnosis certificate at all, you are in the written-declaration class. Every English-language page that frames declaring as the cautious option is understating the rule. | 进境人员有下列情形之一的，应当向海关书面申报：……（二）携带限制进境物品超过限额、限量要求或者应当提交许可证件以及其他证明材料的； | 第九条 第二项 (Article 9, item 2)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
Full text, read 2026-10-06 |
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| Declaring late is legally the same as not declaring The consequence clause, and it is strict. Where written declaration was required and you have not completed the formality before customs starts an inspection, you are treated as not having declared at all. So the window is not 'before an officer asks about it' — it is before any inspection measure begins, which is why the declaration counter comes before the channel, not after someone stops you. | 有第九条、第十条所列情形，在海关采取查验措施前，未按上述规定完成书面申报手续的，视为未向海关申报。 | 第十一条 第三款 (Article 11, third paragraph)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| Red channel — and not knowing the rules is itself a reason to take it This page has told readers to take the red channel for years on the strength of two municipal customs answers. Here is the decree saying it, with a second limb those answers do not carry: at a port running red and green channels, travellers who must declare in writing under these measures, and travellers who are unclear on the customs rules or unsure which channel to choose, must take the red channel. If you cannot tell whether your medicine is controlled in China, the measure has already answered the question for you. | 通过海关实施“红绿通道”申报模式的地点进出境时，携带行李物品的进出境人员按照本办法应当向海关书面申报的，以及不明海关规定或者不知如何选择通道的，应当选择“红色通道”。其他进出境人员，可以选择“绿色通道”。 | 第十二条 (Article 12)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| Release happens after the documents are actually produced Article 44 says customs releases a personal carry 根据自用、合理的原则 — applying a principle of personal use and reasonableness. This article sets the procedural condition on top of it: baggage is released once duty is paid or security given and the permits and other supporting documents are submitted, with quarantine clearance added where quarantine is required by law. The certificate in your folder is not a courtesy; it is the thing release is conditioned on. | 进出境行李物品在依法缴清税款或者提供担保、提交许可证件以及其他证明材料后，海关予以放行；但依法需检疫的，还应当经检疫合格。 | 第二十条 (Article 20)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| Three months to finish anything that cannot be settled at the counter A deadline this page has never been able to give. Where formalities cannot be completed on the spot — including item (二), producing the permits and other supporting documents — the traveller must complete them within three months. That is the realistic shape of a bad arrival: not an instant verdict, but a clock. If a diagnosis certificate is at home or needs translating, this is how long you have to get it in front of customs. | 有下列情形之一，无法当场办结海关手续的，进出境人员应当在三个月内予以办结：（一）应当缴纳进境行李物品税款的；（二）应当提交许可证件以及其他证明材料的；（三）应当按照货物办理海关手续的；（四）对进出境物品的属性、内容、价值等存疑，需要进行检测、鉴定等处理的；（五）需要作退回等处理，无法立即实施的。 | 第二十三条 (Article 23)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| If the certificate cannot be produced, the medicine can be sent back The honest answer to the question this page has carried as unanswerable: what happens to medicine that is refused. Item (三) of this article — 未能提交许可证件以及其他证明材料的 — lists failure to submit the permits and supporting documents among the cases where, once customs has dealt with the item under law, it may with customs' agreement be returned. Return is a listed outcome, not an exceptional favour, and it sits alongside the prohibited-items case in item (四). | 进境人员携带的行李物品有下列情形之一的，且已经海关依法处理的，经海关同意可以退回：（一）未缴纳进境行李物品税款的；（二）未能按照货物办理海关手续的；（三）未能提交许可证件以及其他证明材料的；（四）属于禁止进境物品的；（五）经检疫不合格又无有效处理方法的；（六）其他依法可以退回的。 | 第二十五条 (Article 25)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| And if the paperwork never arrives: auction, sale or destruction The other end of the same ladder, printed here so the downside is stated by the decree rather than by rumour. Customs disposes of baggage by auction, sale or destruction where it was abandoned, where it is a prohibited item that cannot be returned, where it fails quarantine with no effective treatment and cannot be returned, where item (四) applies — the formalities were never completed within the time limit — or where it has sat unclaimed in a customs area for over three months. Read with Article 23, item (四) is the one that catches a traveller who simply stops responding. | 进境人员携带的行李物品有下列情形之一的，由海关依法进行拍卖、变卖、销毁等处置：（一）经海关同意放弃或者自动放弃的；（二）属于禁止进境物品且无法退回的；（三）经检疫不合格又无有效处理方法且无法退回的；（四）未在规定时限内办结海关手续的；（五）在海关监管区内超过三个月无人认领的。 | 第二十七条 (Article 27)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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| The customs measure every other page describes was repealed on 1 April 2025 The dating clause, and the reason this row exists. These measures took effect on 1 April 2025 and simultaneously repealed 《中华人民共和国海关对进出境旅客行李物品监管办法》 — the 1989 decree as amended in 2010 and 2017 — which is the framework the municipal customs answers quoted higher up this page were written on, and the one still being described by travel sites and, in the Chongqing answer's case, cited by decree number. The quantities those answers give for medication come from the drug regulation and are unaffected; the customs procedure around them now lives here. | 本办法自2025年4月1日起施行。1989年11月1日海关总署令第9号公布、根据2010年11月26日海关总署令第198号、2017年12月20日海关总署令第235号修改的《中华人民共和国海关对进出境旅客行李物品监管办法》……同时废止。 | 第三十八条 (Article 38)
《中华人民共和国海关进出境行李物品监管办法》（海关总署令第276号）
Measures of the Customs of the People's Republic of China for the Supervision of Inbound and Outbound Baggage, General Administration of Customs Order No. 276
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