Medical Trip to China: The Complete Planning Checklist (2026)

Planning a treatment trip to China is mostly a scheduling and paperwork problem, and paperwork problems yield to checklists. This page is the complete sequence — from eight-plus weeks out to after you are home — in printable form. Print it, or keep it open as you work through each phase. Items link to detailed guides where one exists.

8+ weeks before departure

Decide and shortlist:

• ☐ Define what you actually want done: which treatment, how urgent, single visit or multiple.
• ☐ Read how treatment in China works and how to choose a hospital.
• ☐ Shortlist 2–3 hospitals from the directory, filtered by city, treatment, and language.
• ☐ Contact their international departments with your situation and records summary — the bilingual inquiry letter tool drafts this for you.
• ☐ Ask each hospital: availability, estimated cost, number of visits needed, language support, what records they need in advance.

Medical groundwork at home:

• ☐ See your own doctor: discuss the plan, your fitness to travel, and how complications or follow-up would be handled at home.
• ☐ Book a travel-health consultation 4–6 weeks before departure and check routine vaccinations are current — hepatitis B immunization is specifically recommended for medical travelers.
• ☐ Check what your health insurance covers abroad; price supplemental medical and evacuation insurance.
• ☐ Agree a plan with both your home doctor and the Chinese hospital for handling complications.

Travel admin:

• ☐ Check passport validity (6+ months beyond the trip is the safe standard).
• ☐ Check visa requirements for your nationality — rules change; verify on official sources as of your travel date.
• ☐ Decide whether a companion comes — strongly advisable for surgery.

4 weeks before

• ☐ Confirm hospital dates in writing — only now book flights and hotels.
• ☐ Book changeable flights and refundable accommodation near the hospital.
• ☐ Build the day-by-day plan with buffers — adapt a sample itinerary or let the AI planner draft one.
• ☐ Assemble your records pack (see "Records & translation" below) and send what the hospital requested.
• ☐ Arrange prescriptions: enough of every regular medication for the whole trip plus spare days, and check your medicines are legal to bring into China.
• ☐ If mobility is limited, request airline assistance and ask the hospital about accessibility.
• ☐ Buy travel insurance now if you have not — note that many policies exclude planned treatment itself, covering only emergencies around it; read the policy.

1 week before

• ☐ Reconfirm the first appointment with the hospital (email or phone).
• ☐ Set up payments and money: Alipay and/or WeChat Pay linked to your card, plus a backup card and some cash for exchange.
• ☐ Install essential apps: translation, maps, ride-hailing, VPN if you need access to services blocked in China — and test them.
• ☐ Arrange connectivity: eSIM/SIM or roaming plan.
• ☐ Print the hospital's name and address in Chinese characters (for taxi drivers) and save offline copies.
• ☐ Note your embassy/consulate contacts and read what to do in an emergency.
• ☐ Follow any pre-procedure instructions (fasting windows, stopping contact lenses, medication adjustments) — confirm them explicitly with the hospital.
• ☐ Pack (list below) and leave copies of your itinerary and documents with someone at home.

Arrival days

• ☐ Clear immigration; keep entry documentation with your passport.
• ☐ Get local payment and connectivity working while still at the airport if possible.
• ☐ Check in, then locate the hospital entrance and the international department desk — a 20-minute scouting walk removes most day-of-appointment stress.
• ☐ Reconfirm tomorrow's appointment time and bring-list.
• ☐ Sleep. Jet lag is a medical factor, not just a comfort one — blood pressure readings and fasting bloods are worse on no sleep.

During treatment

• ☐ Bring to every appointment: passport, records pack, medication list, payment method.
• ☐ Ask for written conclusions after each consultation, and ask how to reach the department with follow-up questions.
• ☐ Keep every receipt and stamped document — insurers and home doctors will want them.
• ☐ Follow activity restrictions; vacation behavior (alcohol, exertion, sun, swimming, long tours) during recovery measurably delays healing. See recovery-compatible activities.
• ☐ If anything feels wrong, contact the hospital immediately — do not wait for the flight home.

Before flying home

• ☐ Collect complete written records: discharge/procedure summary, lab and imaging results (ask for image files, not just reports), prescriptions, and the follow-up plan — in a language your home doctor reads. See medical records and follow-up.
• ☐ Get your doctor's explicit fitness-to-fly confirmation. Aviation guidance sets waiting periods after procedures — for example, around ten days after major chest or abdominal surgery — and your surgeon's advice governs.
• ☐ Understand your clot risk on the flight home: recent surgery plus long-haul immobility compounds it; ask whether compression stockings or other measures are advised for you.
• ☐ Confirm how remote follow-up works: who to email, what photos or readings to send, consultation hours across time zones.
• ☐ Settle all payments and get itemized, stamped invoices.

After you return

• ☐ See your home doctor with the records pack; hand over everything, including exactly what was done and any implants/materials used.
• ☐ Book the follow-up checks the Chinese hospital specified.
• ☐ Watch for warning signs (fever, spreading redness, unusual pain or swelling) and seek care promptly if they appear — tell any doctor that you recently had treatment abroad.
• ☐ File insurance claims while documents are fresh.
• ☐ Keep the hospital's contact details — future doctors may have questions years later.

Documents to carry (hand luggage, never checked)

• ☐ Passport + visa documentation; photocopies stored separately and digitally.
• ☐ Hospital correspondence: appointment confirmations, cost estimates.
• ☐ Records pack (below) and a one-page medical summary.
• ☐ Insurance policy and claim contacts.
• ☐ All medications in original packaging, with prescriptions.
• ☐ Hospital name/address in Chinese; your hotel address in Chinese.

Records & translation

Your records pack: diagnosis and treatment history, current medication list with doses, allergies, recent imaging with written reports (and the image files on a USB stick or verified cloud link), relevant lab results, and referral or specialist letters. Ask the hospital which language it accepts — English is often workable at international departments, but confirm; records in other languages generally need English or Chinese translation, and for key documents a professional translation beats an automatic one. Details in language and interpreters.

Money & payments

Covered in depth in payments in China and costs; the checklist version: ☐ Alipay or WeChat Pay working with your home card; ☐ confirmation of how the hospital itself takes payment; ☐ a written cost estimate before treatment; ☐ a backup card; ☐ modest cash reserve; ☐ awareness that planned treatment is usually paid out of pocket, not by travel insurance.

Packing (medical-trip extras)

• ☐ Comfortable, loose clothing suitable for examinations and recovery.
• ☐ Slip-on or easily loosened shoes — feet and ankles can swell after procedures and on long flights.
• ☐ Any device your treatment implies: glasses after eye surgery (not lenses), sunglasses, dental hygiene kit.
• ☐ Below-knee compression stockings if your doctor advises them for the flights.
• ☐ Power adapter (China uses 220 V; type A/C/I sockets), phone power bank.
• ☐ Small gifts are not expected by hospital staff — skip them; a thank-you note is fine.

Print and go

Print this page, stick it on the fridge, and cross items off ruthlessly. The pattern behind every item is the same: confirm medical facts with the hospital in writing, keep paper trails, and protect the buffers in your schedule.

Next steps

• Find hospitals for your treatment and city in the directory.
• Draft your hospital emails with the inquiry letter tool.
• See realistic pacing in the sample itineraries, and the principles in combining treatment and travel.
• Generate a personal day-by-day plan with the AI planner.

: CDC Yellow Book 2026, Medical Tourism chapter. : UK Civil Aviation Authority, passenger fitness-to-fly FAQs. : CDC Yellow Book 2026, Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism chapter.