When we first started planning our trip to China with Jenna, we assumed we’d rent an Airbnb apartment. It’s our go-to website for booking accommodation; it’s affordable, it’s easy to use, it’s great for traveling with friends, and it can give an authentic feel for what life is really like in the places we visit.

While researching China’s entry requirements, we learned that foreign tourists must register with the police within 24 hours of arriving in China. We also learned that most hotels and hostels will complete the registration for you as part of check in, but travelers staying elsewhere (i.e. with friends or family) need to go to the police station to check in. Airbnb would have put us in the second category.

A search that started as a quick google about how to register with the police immediately raised questions about the legality of using Airbnb in China without providing any obvious answers. The information we found suggested the process of registering would be cumbersome, confusing, and inconvenient. In the case of Airbnb specifically, we learned that a host would likely have to accompany their guest and possibly even act as a “friend.” We decided not to risk dealing with this and opted to go the hotel route.

In Shanghai, everything went as planned. We presented our passports at the hotel and there was never any mention of registration.

Fast forward to our arrival in Beijing on Tuesday night when we get to the hotel and the receptionist tells us… we have to check in at the police station! Panic immediately set in. We thought we had avoided this!!! We tried to ask questions about why they didn’t register for us but the language barrier didn’t do us any favors. We spent some time that night researching again what to do – what papers to bring, which station to go to, etc. but couldn’t find anything concrete.

The next morning when we were on our way out to register we swung by the desk again to ask if we needed any paperwork from them, like some kind of form saying we were approved to be there. We were so pleased and relieved when instead they offered to send someone with us to the police station!

It was only a quick 5 minute walk to the station. When we arrived, our hotel pal told the woman at the station we needed to register and we handed her our passports and sat on a couch in her small office. After about 15 minutes, she handed the passports back with a small registration paper and we were on our way.

All in all, it ended up working out just fine. We are glad the hotel staff went with us and that the process was relatively painless, although unnecessarily stressful.

This is the only country we’ve heard of that has this entry requirement, but I suppose we will find out more about others as we continue our research and our travels! Have you ever had to register with local police when visiting somewhere? Do you know more about the requirements for China?