There are signs of a growing trend of “reverse medical tourism”, where foreigners travel to China for healthcare services, as in the past Chinese who could afford it would travel abroad to get medical treatment. Now, patients from overseas are coming to China, drawn by the country’s medical expertise and advanced facilities. Beyond the country’s advantages of efficiency and cost, industry experts said foreign patients are increasingly coming to China to seek treatment for complex health conditions, including cancer. China’s healthcare system boasts unmatched strengths in specialized areas, such as proton therapy, targeted drugs, and CAR-T cell therapy, with advanced technology and extensive clinical experience, they said. “China has found a balance in the global healthcare ‘impossible triangle’ of high quality, affordability, and short wait times,” said Wang Jian’an, Academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
“Many foreign patients are taking the initiative to recommend us through social media,” said Gong Yanchun, Director of the International Medical Department at Ruijin Hospital. The hospital’s launched its international medical services in the 1990s, providing healthcare for expats in Shanghai. The International Medical Department now has independent wards, dedicated teams, and separate services. With nearly 100 beds, Ruijin is one of the largest public medical institutions in the country providing international medical services. Last year, outpatient visits reached 150,000, representing growth of about 7% compared with 2024, the hospital said. The number of outpatient visits by foreign patients increased by around 15% year-on-year.
Not only are more foreign faces appearing in Chinese hospitals, but their treatment needs are also changing. Earlier, most foreigners came for physical examinations and imaging tests. Nowadays, they are more attracted by the specialized health fields offered by Chinese hospitals, said industry observers. “In some typical cases, patients often have been to many countries, researched literature, consulted AI, and eventually traveled long distances to China,” said Gong. “They choose China not because it’s cheaper, but because they recognize the world-class expertise that the hospitals here can offer,” he said, citing as examples CAR-T cell therapy, treatment of complex neurological disorders, and proton therapy, which are among Ruijin’s in-demand services.
Shanghai Renji Hospital’s outstanding pediatric liver transplant techniques have made it a new destination for young patients from Asia and even further afield. For more than a decade, the hospital has achieved the highest number of pediatric liver transplants worldwide. Shanghai Huashan Hospital, renowned for its advantages in neurosurgery, has not only become a beacon of hope for patients globally, but also a destination for foreign doctors to advance their training. In September 2023, Shanghai launched a pilot program for international medical tourism. Thirteen top-tier hospitals strong in innovation and technical capacity, as well as experience in treating international patients, were invited to join the program and asked to look at ways to provide better medical services for foreigners. A year after the pilot began, the list was expanded to 22 hospitals, mostly institutions with strength in specialized areas including oncology, cardiovascular diseases, and neurology. According to data released by the Chinese Hospital Association last year, a total of 850 medical institutions across 57 cities on the Chinese mainland provided international medical services.
Innovative drugs and medical devices from China have been received remarkably well on the global stage in recent years, enhancing the recognition of the country’s medical technology. China’s brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, for instance, has enabled paralyzed individuals to control a powered wheelchair and direct a robotic dog to retrieve deliveries with their thoughts. In late January, Jiangsu province-based Simcere Pharmaceutical Group announced it had reached an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim, a German pharmaceutical giant with extensive experience in global immunotherapy. They will jointly develop Simcere’s self-developed bi-specific anti-body SIM0709, potentially a first-in-class treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
International patients have praised the efficiency of Chinese hospitals. On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, Irishman Richie Lenehan, shared his experience about medical treatment at Shanghai’s Huadong Hospital after suffering ligament damage while playing soccer. “I was shocked by the highly efficient procedures and low costs of Chinese hospitals,” he said. At the hospital, he moved from registration to receiving his X-ray results in just one hour, spending CNY130 on the test. A French student had surgery on his thumb at a branch of Parkway Shanghai, which saw a 15% increase in the number of foreign patients in 2025 compared with the previous year. China’s healthcare cost-effectiveness is also attractive to international patients. Knee replacement surgery in China, for example, costs around CNY60,000, compared with USD50,000 in the U.S., and MRI scans in China cost a fraction of those in the U.S., the China Daily reports.
