China Phone Codes - An Introduction

January 24, 2019

With multiple international codes, hundreds of area codes and numbers of different lengths, making sense of China phone codes can be challenging.

Determining if a Chinese phone number is a mobile or a landline, and knowing where in the country it is located can be a useful way to better understand who you are dealing with.

If you want to learn more about China phone codes, including international codes, area codes (both 2-digit and 3-digit) and mobile codes, then this article is for you.

Chinese International Dialling Codes

Unlike most countries, China, for historical reasons, has more than one company registration system, more than one currency, more than one stock exchange, and more than one international phone code.

The vast majority of the country's population live in Mainland China, where the dialling code is +86, but there are also two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau where the dialling codes are +852 and +853 respectively.

To further complicate matters, the self-governing island of Taiwan (a.k.a. Republic of China), considered by Beijing to be a renegade province, uses another dialling code altogether.

Here's a summary of the Chinese international dialling codes:

With that explanation out of the way, the rest of this article will focus on phone codes in Mainland China.

How to Identify China Phone Codes

You might have seen a Chinese phone number on a website, email signature, business card, quotation, invoice, contract, bill of lading, presentation, or any number of other documents a company could provide you with.

Here are a few examples to help you identify what are the China phone codes:

Example 1: China Mobile Number without International Code

150XXXXXXXX

(11-digits mobile number)

Example 2: China Mobile Number with International Code

+86135XXXXXXXX

(country code + 11-digits mobile number)

Example 3: China Landline Number without International Code

021 XXXX XXXX

(area code + 8 digits landline number)

Example 4: China Landline Number with International Code

+86 (0)756 XXX XXXX

(country code + area code + 7 digits landline number)

N.B. China landline numbers are always 7 or 8 digits long and the "0" from the area code is omitted if calling from overseas.

Mainland China Mobile Phone Codes

Mobile phone numbers in China are always 11 digits long (excluding the international dialing code) and start with either 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19.

There are only 3 mobile phone providers in Mainland China and they have been allocated phone numbers with the following 3-digit prefixes:

China Area Phone Codes

Landline phone numbers in China each have a location-specific area phone code which is either 2-digits or 3-digits long.

As a general rule of thumb the 2-digit codes are reserved for the biggest cities and each start with a "1" or a "2". The 3-digit codes, on the other hand, start with "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8" or "9" and are shared among the provinces in a fairly logical manner.

If you are calling a landline phone number from within China you need to add a 0 to the number instead of the international dialing code.

2-Digit China Area Phone Codes

These are reserved for China's largest cities, including the municipalities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Surprisingly, one of China's 1st tier cities, Shenzhen, hasn't been allocated a 2-digit area code however.

3-Digit China Area Phone Codes

Outside of the major cities listed above, Chinese phone numbers each have a 3-digit area code. 

As can be seen from the map below, provinces are clustered in areas and share a common first digit - "3", "4", "5", "7", "8" or "9". You can see that these broadly align with the 7 different geographic regions of China.

Additionally, there are some areas in Guangdong, Shandong and Yunnan provinces which have been allocated new area codes beginning with the number "6".

Phone Numbers and Verifying Chinese Companies

Besides classic scams, there are also a few warning signs we look out for when it comes to phone numbers and verifying Chinese companies. 

For example if a Chinese company from one province gives you a phone number from another province this could be cause for concern.

Another example could be if someone claims to represent a large manufacturer, but can only provide you with a mobile phone number.

In a word, it is alarmed that you are given inconsistent phone number or only a mobile phone number.

Verifying whether a phone number is registered to a company is one of the many checks we make when processing our China company verification reports, so if you have any concerns over a Chinese company's contact details, order one of our company verification services today: