Telephone numbers in China are organized according to the Chinese Telephone Code Plan. The numerical formats of landlines and mobile phones are different: landlines have area codes, whereas mobile phones do not. In major cities, landline numbers consist of a two-digit area code followed by an eight-digit inner number. In other places, landline numbers consist of a three-digit area code followed by a seven- or eight-digit internal number. The numbers of mobile phones consist of eleven digits.
When one landline is used to dial another landline within the same area, it is not necessary to specify the area code. The target number must be prepended between different regions with the trunk prefix, which is 0.
Calling a mobile phone from a landline requires the addition of the "0" in front of the mobile phone number if they are not in the same area. Mobile to landline calls requires the "0" and the area code if the landline is not within the same place. Mobile to mobile calls does not require the "0" outside mainland China.
In mainland China, mobile phone numbers have 11 digits in the format 1xx-XXXX-XXXX (except for 140–144, which are 13-digit IoT numbers), in which the first three digits (13x to 19x) designate the mobile phone service provider.
Before GSM, mobile phones had 6-digit (later upgraded to 7-digit) numbers starting with nine. They had the same numbering format as fixed-line telephones. Those numbers were eventually translated into 1390xx9xxx, where xx were local identifiers.
The oldest China Mobile GSM numbers were ten digits long and started with 139 in 1994, the second oldest 138 in 1997, and 137, 136, 135 in 1999. The oldest China Unicom numbers started with 130 in 1995, the second oldest at 131 in 1998. Keeping the same number over time is somewhat associated with the stability and reliability of the owner. The 5th to the seventh digit sometimes relates to age and location.
China's mobile phone numbers upgraded from 10-digit to 11-digit, with 0 added after 13x, and thus HLR code became 4-digit long to expand the capacity of the seriously fully crowded numbering plan.
In 2006, 15x numbers were introduced.In late 2008, 18x and 14x (for data plans or IoT) were introduced. In late 2013, 17x were introduced. In 2017, 16x and 19x were introduced.
In December 2016, each cell phone number was required to be consigned to a real name in mainland China.
In November 2010, MIIT has started the trial mobile number portability service in Tianjin and Hainan, in 2012 the trial has extended to Jiangxi, Hubei and Yunan provinces. In 10 November 2019, all provinces started accepting MNP requests for all mobile providers, except for technical difficults, the MVNO phones, satellite phones and IoT phones.
Mobile service providers can be identified by the first three or four digits as follows:
China Unicom (formerly Data-plans only) only new TD-LTE, LTE-FDD, LTE-A or NR wireless network card users may got a new 145 number, but can also be used to connect 3G network
China Telecom (formerly Data-plans only) only new TD-LTE, LTE-FDD, LTE-A or NR wireless network card users may got a new 149 number, but can also be used to connect 2G network
2 – Operated by China Transport Telecommunication Information Group Co., Ltd.
3 – TD-SCDMA networks are being deprecated by China Mobile since c.2020
4 – GSM networks are being deprecated by China Unicom since c.2020
5 – CDMA2000 networks are being deprecated by China Telecom since c.2020
Calling formats
To call phone numbers in China one of the following formats is used:
For fixed phones:
xxx xxxx | xxxx xxxx Calls within the same area code
0yyy xxx xxxx | 0yyy xxxx xxxx Calls from other areas within China
+86 yyy xxx xxxx | +86 yyy xxxx xxxx Calls from outside China
For mobile phones:
1nn xxxx xxxx Calls to mobile phones within China
+86 1nn xxxx xxxx Calls to mobiles from outside China
Area 1 – Capital Operation Center
The prefix one is used exclusively by the national capital, BeijingMunicipality.
Beijing – 10 (formerly 1, abolished after GSM was introduced, to avoid conflict with mobile phone numbers with prefix 0 added (e.g. 0139-xxxx-xxxx))
Area 2 – Country Communication System Operating Center
These are area codes for the municipalities of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, as well as several major cities with early access to telephones. These cities have upgraded to an 8-number system in the past decade[when?].
All telephone numbers are 8-digit in these areas.
It's still unclear whether 26 will be provided or not, some local materials say that it's reserved for Taiwan (especially its capital Taipei), but currently they use +886.[4] Some proposals from planned independent cities (Chinese: 计划单列市) to get rights to operate 026 were also unsuccessful.[5][6]
17 - Formerly 565 for Chaohu prefectural city era (i.e. before 2011), later splitted as: Hefei's 551 for Juchao district (now county-level Chaohu) and Lujiang county, Wuhu's 553 for Wuwei and Shenxiang Town of He county (now part of Jiujiang district), and Ma'anshan's 555 for He county (except Shenxiang) and Hanshan county. 18 - Split from Fuyang in 2000, no new area code allocated.
24 - Split from Wuzhou Prefecture, original area code inherited. 25 - Split from Liuzhou Prefecture, original area code inherited. 26 - Split from Yulin Prefecture, original area code inherited. 27 - Split from Nanning Prefecture, original area code inherited.
☐Disputed areas claimed or controlled by China, India or Bhutan.
Hainan – 898
All telephone numbers are 8-digit in Hainan.
Formerly (most likely before 2000), Sanya, Wuzhishan, Lingshui, Ledong, Baoting and Qiongzhong were 899, Danzhou, Dongfang, Lingao, Baisha and Changjiang were 890.
Starting from 2012 in Shenzhen, an implemented system upgrade to unify three emergency reporting services into one number, 110. A similar approach is being installed in more cities in China to make them more convenient.
Dialing 112, 911, and 999(outside Beijing without area code 010) plays a recording message about the correct emergency numbers in Chinese and English twice: "For police, dial 110. To report a fire, dial 119. For ambulance, dial 120. To report a traffic accident, dial 122." on China Mobile and China Unicom phones, NO SERVICES will be redirected. The error messages "Number does not exist" will be played on China Telecom phones, and NO SERVICES will be redirected. However, some local report said that in sometimes, only within Beijing, China Unicom landlines and mobile phones call 010-112 may be successful as reporting service for call failures.
Others
From within Mainland China, the following special numbers are used:
114 – Directory assistance, operate by China Unicom for the northern 10 provinces, and China Telecom for the southern 21 provinces, China Unicom also operates 116114, and China Telecom 118114 that the operations are same as 114
116xxx – Premium service of China Unicom (e.g. 116114)
118xxx – Premium service of China Telecom (e.g. 118114)
12114 – SMS name and address standard trial platform, not for calling
124x – Carrier Identification Code (formerly 190/196/197, abolished in 2018, to create space for mobile phone numbers.)
125xx – Premium service of China Mobile (e.g. 12580 for China Mobile's Directory assistance)
179xx + target number followed – VoIP (e.g. 17901-133-0000-0000, 1790 for China Telecom, 1791 for China Unicom, and 1795 for China Mobile)
400 xxx xxxx, 800 xxx xxxx – business numbers
Differences: bills for 400 numbers are paid by both originating and terminating callers, and support calling from both landlines and mobile phones (usually 400-1/7 operate by China Mobile, 400-0/6 operate by China Unicom, 400-8/9 operate by China Telecom); bills for 800 numbers are just paid by terminating callers, but for non-landline users, mostly only China Telecom mobile phones may call 800 phones, because nearly all 800 phones are operated by China Telecom
400-881-0000 for auditing China Telecom's services
95xxx, 95xxxx, 95105xxx- Service number (nationally)
96xxx, 96xxxx – Service number (locally,area code needed for calls from other provinces or autonomous region or province-level municipality.)
(ex. 962288 in Shanghai – Shanghai foreigner assistant hotline, outside Shanghai people should dial 021-962288, or they will receive an error message or undesired service message)
Former
20x (mainly 200 and 201) – was used for IC telephone service, to be reserved for mobile phones
^+86-10-68995110 when located at EEZs or public seas, where mobile signals are unable to provide
^SMS only, calling 12345 for this purpose will be hung up, with a SMS instruction returned
^ abcdecalling center merged with 12345, but numbers and service seats still work
^ abcdefghijklmncalling center and seats merged with 12345, but numbers still work
^remote users are only able to receive phones from 12340, they can't directly call this number
