Below the hospital line

Buying medicine at a Chinese pharmacy: over-the-counter vs prescription

In short

Can I just buy medicine at a Chinese pharmacy?

For over-the-counter (OTC) medicine, yes. China's national classification regulation says an OTC drug can be judged, bought and used on your own without a doctor's prescription, and that you may choose OTC drugs yourself — only prescription drugs need a licensed doctor first. An OTC box carries a designated oval OTC mark: orange-red for Class-A (bought at a 药店 pharmacy, ask the pharmacist) and dark-green for Class-B (also sold in ordinary supermarkets and convenience stores). Find the OTC mark, read its colour, and you know whether you can buy it and where.

Back to support

Applies to

Any foreign visitor treating a minor illness or injury mid-trip — a headache, cold, upset stomach or small cut — that needs something now but is nowhere near a 120 emergency.

Check before you rely on it

This page explains how a Chinese pharmacy's shelves are organised — OTC vs prescription, red mark vs green. It does not recommend a specific medicine for a symptom, and no opened source supports one. If your usual medicine may not be sold here, the finding-the-medicine guide covers that; for the hospital route, the medical-care guide does.

Information checked: August 1, 2026

The health guides own the hospital (dial 120), the customs desk (bringing your own medicine in) and the illness itself. This one owns the step before all of them — walking into a 药店 and knowing what you are allowed to buy without a doctor.

Back to support If it's a hospital problem

What you can buy without a doctor

The line the national regulation draws

China's Measures for the Classified Administration of Prescription and Non-Prescription Drugs set out what needs a prescription, what does not, and how each is sold — the backbone the three neighbouring health pages never provided.

The OTC shelf needs no doctor; the prescription shelf does

The national regulation draws the line a visitor at a 药店 (pharmacy) needs: a prescription drug may be dispensed, bought and used only on a licensed physician's or licensed assistant physician's prescription, while a non-prescription (OTC) drug may be judged, bought and used on your own without one. So the OTC shelf is buy-without-a-doctor; the prescription counter is not.

Article 2

Source: State Drug Administration (国家药品监督管理局) Order No. 10, in the national regulations library on the Central People's Government portal 中国政府网 (www.gov.cn) — 处方药与非处方药分类管理办法（试行）(Measures for the Classified Administration of Prescription and Non-Prescription Drugs, Trial), Articles 2, 7, 8, 11 (source issued 1999-06-18 by SDA Order No. 10; effective 2000-01-01; read August 1, 2026)

OTC splits into Class A and Class B by safety

By drug safety the regulation divides OTC drugs into Class A (甲类) and Class B (乙类). Retailers of prescription drugs and of Class-A OTC must hold a 《药品经营企业许可证》 (Drug Business Licence) — that is, a licensed pharmacy — while other commercial businesses approved by the provincial drug authority may retail Class-B OTC. So Class-A OTC and prescription drugs come from a pharmacy; Class-B OTC can come from an ordinary approved shop.

Article 8

An OTC box carries a designated OTC mark

OTC packaging must be printed with the state-designated OTC 专有标识 (the OTC logo), and every sales unit must carry a label and instructions. That printed mark is how you recognise an over-the-counter box on the shelf without reading the Chinese.

Article 7

You are allowed to choose OTC drugs yourself

The regulation states that the consumer has the right to select and buy OTC drugs on their own, and must use them per the label and the instructions. Picking an OTC box off the shelf yourself is the intended way to buy it — the pharmacist's sign-off is for the prescription and Class-A side.

Article 11

Reading the box

Red mark vs green mark

The same oval OTC logo comes in two colours, and the colour tells you the tier and where it is sold.

Same OTC oval, two colours. The OTC mark is an oval, and its colour tells you which tier you are holding: Class-A OTC (甲类) is an orange-red oval, Class-B OTC (乙类) a dark-green oval. Red is the lower-safety tier the pharmacy sells under guidance; green is the higher-safety tier sold more widely.
Which tier is 'safer'. The Beijing regulator states Class-A OTC is of relatively lower safety and Class-B of relatively higher safety. The split exists to make buying medicine as convenient as possible while keeping it safe — not to keep either tier away from you.

Source: Beijing Municipal Medical Products Administration (北京市药品监督管理局), drug science column on yjj.beijing.gov.cn — 为什么非处方药还分甲类和乙类？(Why are non-prescription drugs further split into Class A and Class B?) (source published 2019-03-01; read August 1, 2026)

So where do I actually buy it

Pharmacy counter, ordinary shelf, or a doctor first

China Food and Drug News translates the regulation into what a traveller actually does.

Class-A OTC (red mark): at the pharmacy counter. Class-A OTC must be sold in a pharmacy and used under a pharmacist's guidance. This is the plain-language version of the regulation's 'Class-A retailer needs a Drug Business Licence': buy a red-mark OTC box at the 药店 counter, and the pharmacist is there to guide the dose.

Class-B OTC (green mark): off an ordinary shelf. Class-B OTC can be sold like an ordinary product in supermarkets and convenience stores. A green-mark box does not need a pharmacy — you can pick it up where you buy everything else.

Prescription drugs: a doctor first. The paper restates the national rule that prescription drugs may be dispensed, bought and used only on a licensed physician's or licensed assistant physician's prescription — so anything behind the prescription counter means a doctor's visit before the pharmacy, not instead of it.

Source: 中国食品药品网 / 中国医药报 (China Food and Drug News), the medicine newspaper affiliated with the National Medical Products Administration — 如何区分处方药和非处方药 (How to distinguish prescription drugs from non-prescription drugs) (source published 2019-03-18; read August 1, 2026)

At the pharmacy

The buy-it sequence

1.Find a 药店 (pharmacy) — the sign is 药 or 药店, and larger cities have 24-hour ones. For anything on the prescription counter you need a doctor's prescription first; the OTC shelves you can browse yourself.
2.Look for the oval OTC mark on the box. It means the medicine is non-prescription and you may buy it without a doctor.
3.Read the mark's colour: orange-red is Class-A OTC (sold at the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist), dark-green is Class-B OTC (higher-safety, also sold in ordinary shops).
4.For a Class-A (red-mark) medicine, show the pharmacist what you want and let them guide the dose. A translation app on the symptom and the generic name helps here.
5.For a Class-B (green-mark) medicine you can also buy it off a supermarket or convenience-store shelf if no pharmacy is open.
6.Keep the box and the instructions. If the symptoms are severe or not improving, stop self-treating and seek medical care — and for an emergency, dial 120 for an ambulance.

In short

Pharmacy questions travellers ask

Buying without a prescription, reading the box, where each kind is sold, and when a pharmacy is not enough.

Can I just buy medicine at a Chinese pharmacy without a prescription?

For non-prescription (OTC) drugs, yes. China's national classification regulation says an OTC drug may be judged, bought and used on your own without a doctor's prescription, and that consumers may select OTC drugs themselves. Prescription drugs are the exception — those may be bought only on a licensed doctor's prescription.

How do I tell an over-the-counter box from a prescription one?

Look for the oval OTC mark the regulation requires on non-prescription packaging. If the box carries that OTC logo, it is a drug you can buy without a doctor. Anything on the prescription counter without that mark needs a prescription.

What do the red and green OTC marks mean?

They are the two OTC tiers. The Beijing drug regulator says the OTC oval is orange-red for Class-A OTC (relatively lower safety, sold at a pharmacy under a pharmacist's guidance) and dark-green for Class-B OTC (relatively higher safety, also sold in ordinary shops).

Where do I buy each kind?

Class-A OTC (red mark) and prescription drugs are sold at a licensed pharmacy — for Class-A, ask the pharmacist. Class-B OTC (green mark) can be bought like an ordinary product in a supermarket or convenience store, per China Food and Drug News. Prescription drugs still need a doctor first.

When should I skip the pharmacy and see a doctor?

If symptoms are severe or not improving, get medical care rather than self-treating. For an emergency the UK's travel advice gives the number plainly: call 120 and ask for an ambulance. The medical-care guide covers the hospital route.

Will the pharmacy have the medicine I take at home?

Not necessarily. The UK's travel advice warns that certain medicines may not be available in China. If you rely on a specific medicine, the finding-the-medicine guide covers bringing enough with you and carrying the generic name — we could not source a per-drug list of what a Chinese pharmacy stocks.

When a pharmacy isn't enough

Stop self-treating and seek care

The one boundary the sources let us state — the softer symptom-by-symptom triage line, they do not.

A pharmacy is for a minor illness or injury you can treat yourself. If symptoms are severe or not improving, get medical care instead. For an emergency, the UK's travel advice gives the number plainly: call 120 and ask for an ambulance. No opened source sets out a China-specific “these symptoms a pharmacy can handle, these mean see a doctor” line, so this page does not invent one — it points you to the hospital route instead.

The hospital route

Source: UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (gov.uk) — Foreign travel advice: China — Health (read August 1, 2026)

Not confirmed

What no opened source would let us say

The claims we could not source from a page we opened are printed here rather than asserted.

No opened source recommends a specific medicine or Chinese brand for a given symptom (a headache, a cold, an upset stomach), so this page does not name products — it explains how the shelves are organised, not what to pick off them.
No opened source ties a home-country generic drug to its Chinese name or to whether a pharmacy stocks it. The finding-the-medicine guide handles the 'my usual medicine' case without a per-drug name table.
No opened source publishes a China-specific 'these symptoms a pharmacy can handle, these mean see a doctor' triage line, so this page carries only the escalation line (severe or not improving → seek care; emergency → 120) and points to the medical-care guide.
The exact opening hours of a 24-hour pharmacy, and where the nearest one is, are local and not something an opened national source publishes — ask your hotel or a map app for the closest 药店.

If your usual medicine runs out

Bringing enough, carrying the generic name, and why a local purchase needs care — the run-out case on its own page.

Open the guide

If it's a hospital problem

The 120 ambulance number, emergency departments, the English lines Beijing publishes, and who pays.

Open page

Bringing your own medicine in

The customs side: narcotic and psychotropic classification, the red channel, and the certificate of diagnosis.