Every foreigner who enters China has to be recorded as living at a specific address. If you stay in a hotel, the hotel does it for you and you never think about it again. If you stay anywhere else - an Airbnb, a friend's flat, a rented apartment - you have 24 hours to register yourself at the local police station, and this is the single most commonly missed piece of paperwork among independent travelers. I have watched people get turned away from a visa extension counter in Beijing over a stamp they did not know existed. Here is the whole rule in plain language, including what happens if you ignore it.
クイック情報
Deadline
24 hours after entry (non-hotel stays)
Hotel Guests
Hotel registers you automatically
Bring
Passport + lease or property certificate
Cost
Free, 10-20 minutes at the station
What the Rule Actually Says
Under China's Exit and Entry Administration Law, and repeated in the Ministry of Commerce 2025 guide for foreign business visitors, the requirement is short and unambiguous. Foreigners staying in a hotel: the hotel handles residence registration when you present your passport at reception. Foreigners staying anywhere else: register at the local police station within 24 hours of arrival, presenting your valid passport plus a rental contract or property ownership certificate. Two things that follow from that wording. The 24-hour clock starts when you enter China, not when you check in somewhere - so if you land at PEK at 23:00 and go to a friend's flat, the deadline is the next evening, and a sensible officer will accept a registration at opening time the next morning. And the document your host needs to produce is a lease or a property certificate, not a verbal confirmation that you are a guest.
Hotels vs Airbnb vs Staying With Friends
Hotel or serviced apartment: automatic, covers your whole stay, and the registration record in the hotel system is what the exit-entry bureau will look for later. Nothing for you to do beyond handing over your passport. Airbnb and Chinese homestays: hosts are legally required to register foreign guests, but plenty of short-let operators do not, particularly unlicensed ones advertising on domestic platforms. Before you book, message the host and ask directly: will you complete the police registration for me, and can you send me the record? A host who does not understand the question is a host who will not do it. Staying with a friend or family: the host should come with you to the station carrying their ID card and the property certificate, because the officer will want to see that the address is genuinely theirs. Long-term rental: you register yourself within 24 hours, and the lease becomes the proof you will need for everything else - bank account, residence permit, driving license.
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How to Register at a Beijing Police Station, Step by Step
Step 1: Identify the right station. You need the paichusuo (派出所) whose jurisdiction covers your actual address, not the biggest one nearby. Your host usually knows it; otherwise ask the building management or search the address plus 派出所 in a Chinese map app. Step 2: Bring your passport, your entry stamp and visa page, the lease or property certificate, and your host with their ID if you are a guest. Step 3: At the counter, ask for the Registration Form of Temporary Residence for Foreigners (境外人员临时住宿登记表). Say it in Chinese if you can: waijing renyuan linshi zhusu dengjibiao. Step 4: Fill in your name exactly as printed in the passport, passport number, visa or entry number, the full address in Chinese, and your arrival and departure dates. Step 5: The officer stamps it. That stamped paper - or the printout they hand you - is the thing you keep. Photograph it, email it to yourself, and put the paper in your passport wallet. Cost: nothing. Time: 10 to 20 minutes if the office is quiet. Hours: most stations handle this 9:00-11:30 and 14:00-17:00 on weekdays, and a few larger ones have 24-hour desks, but do not count on it.
Why the Slip Matters More Than You Think
On a normal tourist trip, nobody will ever ask to see it. The slip becomes critical the moment you need an administrative service, because almost all of them check it first. A stay extension at the exit-entry bureau: registration slip required. A residence permit application: required, and it must cover the address you are actually living at. A work permit, a driving license conversion, a local bank account, a long-term phone contract: usually requested. Some budget hotels will also ask for proof of registration if you booked through a platform that did not register you. Failure to register is technically punishable by a warning or a fine of up to 2,000 RMB. In practice officers are reasonable with tourists who explain themselves, and the realistic risk is not a spot fine on the street - it is being unable to complete the one piece of paperwork your whole trip depends on.
Does This Apply on 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit?
Yes. The registration obligation is tied to where you sleep, not to which entry route you used. If you are on the 240-hour transit policy and staying in a hotel, the hotel registers you and there is nothing to do. If you are on transit and staying with a friend in Beijing for three nights, you are still technically required to register within 24 hours, and people do get asked when they later apply for a visa from abroad - the record exists in the system. Nobody checks at the airport on departure. The cost of doing it is twenty minutes; the cost of skipping it is a paperwork problem at the worst possible moment.
Moved, Changed Hotels or Lost the Paper
If you move to a new address, you re-register at the new police station within 24 hours of the move. There is no need to cancel the old registration - the system simply holds a new address. If you switch hotels mid-trip, the new hotel registers you again on check-in and you are covered for those nights. If you lose the slip, go back to the same station with your passport; they can look up the record and reissue or reprint it. If you never got one because the host promised and did not deliver, go yourself with the lease; you do not need the host to be present at every station, though some will insist, which is why it is worth calling ahead or bringing a Chinese-speaking friend.
The Five Mistakes I See Most
One: registering at the wrong station, usually the nearest rather than the correct jurisdiction, then being sent across the district. Two: arriving after 16:30, finding the desk closed, and giving up instead of coming back the next morning. Three: assuming the Airbnb host did it, without ever asking for the record - this is the most common way travelers end up unregistered. Four: staying in a hotel for two nights, then moving to a friend's flat, and assuming the hotel registration still covers them. Five: treating the slip as disposable, then discovering at the visa extension counter three weeks later that it was in the pocket of the trousers you sent to the laundry.
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