Shanghai hospitals with international departments: how to choose

All 13 hospitals listed here are large public tier-3A teaching hospitals affiliated with Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, or Tongji University. We coordinate access to their international or VIP departments. Medical fees are paid directly by you to the hospital; we do not collect or pass on hospital fees.

How public 3A hospitals and international departments work

China’s hospital grade system tops out at tier-3, class-A (三级甲等, commonly written “3A”). That rating is awarded by the National Health Commission and signals a large teaching hospital with the highest staffing and equipment standards.

Within these hospitals, an international department (国际医疗部) or VIP / special-needs department (特需医疗部 or VIP诊疗中心) is a dedicated floor or wing that offers:

• Appointment-based access — avoiding the ordinary outpatient queue
• English-language support — at minimum a bilingual coordinator, and in some cases English-speaking physicians
• Higher service fees — set and charged by the hospital, on top of standard medical costs
• Insurance direct billing — most of these departments hold agreements with major international insurers, so you may not need to pay out of pocket first

Clinically, you are treated by the same medical staff who work in the main hospital. The international department controls service delivery, not clinical standards.

Which hospital for which visit

Health screening

• Huadong Hospital (Fudan University) — The Special-needs Department (特需医疗部) offers English and Japanese service, health check-up packages, and access to 40+ specialties including cardiology, gastroenterology, and general surgery. Inpatient wing has 66 rooms with hotel-style service. Note: these service details come from a 2016 government-adjacent source (see the verification section below); we are confirming current details directly with the hospital.

• Shanghai General Hospital — The International Medical Care Center (IMCC), established 1993, supports English, Japanese, and Russian; provides 24-hour emergency and outpatient service; and offers VIP check-up packages including immigration medical exams. A separate English website is available.

• Renji Hospital (SJTU School of Medicine) — The international medical department (opened 2015) sees approximately 10,000 international and HK/Macau/Taiwan patients per year from 40+ countries. It became the first public hospital in China to receive DNV GL international medical accreditation (2018; current certification status not independently re-verified). Health management centres operate at three campuses.

Dental

• Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital (SJTU School of Medicine) — Major public oral & maxillofacial centre: the SJTU School of Medicine hospital profile documents a National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, national clinical key specialties across multiple dental fields, and 506 comprehensive dental chairs (accessed 2026-07-21). A dedicated foreign-patient international desk was not verified on published pages at research time — language and booking path are confirmed per enquiry. See the dental guide.

• Xinhua Hospital (SJTU School of Medicine) — Stomatology (口腔科) is confirmed in the hospital’s official department listing. The hospital’s international unit — the Xinhua Jinglang International Medical Department — holds Shanghai’s public-hospital medical-tourism pilot status, awarded September 2024.

TCM

• Longhua Hospital (Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) — A JCI-accredited academic medical center founded in 1960 and one of China’s four earliest TCM clinical bases. All 48 clinical departments are TCM-led, covering oncology, bone degeneration, nephrology, rheumatology, ophthalmology, and more. We did not find a dedicated international clinic or foreign-patient appointment channel on the hospital website. We are confirming by phone before recommending this option to patients who need English support.

Pediatrics

• Fudan Children’s Hospital (National Children’s Medical Center, Fudan University) — The International Medical Center offers 26 family inpatient rooms, multilingual translation, international insurance agreements, 24-hour emergency, and a vaccination and health-management clinic. JCI-accredited in 2014 — the first children’s specialist hospital in China to pass the 5th-edition JCI standard and the first academic medical center in Asia to do so.

• Shanghai Children’s Medical Center (SCMC) (SJTU School of Medicine) — The International Special Clinic, established 2001, occupies floors 13–14 of the hospital’s main building. It serves children aged 0–18 with paediatric general, specialist, health-check, vaccination, and Chinese–Western medicine clinics, plus 20 individual inpatient rooms. JCI-accredited in 2010 — the first paediatric hospital in China to receive JCI accreditation.

Maternity

• IPMCH — International Peace Maternity & Child Health Hospital (affiliated with SJTU School of Medicine) — The VIP centre occupies floors 13–15: outpatient on floor 13, inpatient on floors 14–15. It offers a full range of obstetric and gynaecological services including well-woman check-up, prenatal check-up, mammary check-up, and OB/GYN procedures. A full English website is available.

• Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital (Tongji University) — An international medical department is listed in the hospital’s outpatient navigation. Service scope, language support, and appointment process details have not been confirmed; we are verifying by phone and will update this page.

Complex and general international care

• Huashan Hospital (Fudan University) — The international medical center, established 1989, is described as Shanghai’s first unit offering international medical service. Approximately 50% of patients are from overseas; it is the designated medical provider for 10 consulates (USA, Italy, UK, Japan, Canada, among others). Ranked first among Shanghai’s 13 first-batch public-hospital medical-tourism pilot units (2024).

• Zhongshan Hospital (Fudan University) — The international medical department, opened June 2020, has 14 consulting rooms and 70 single-occupancy rooms across five wards. Provides multilingual service including AI-assisted translation for less common languages. Named a 2023 first-batch Shanghai international medical-tourism pilot.

• Ruijin Hospital (SJTU School of Medicine) — The International Medical Department and Special-needs Health Center is located at 197 Ruijin Er Road. National key disciplines include haematology, endocrinology, cardiology, and neurology.

• Sixth People’s Hospital (SJTU School of Medicine) — The international/special-needs department at the Xuhui campus is a comprehensive teaching hospital with national-level key disciplines in orthopaedics, endocrinology and metabolism, sports medicine, and ENT. See the note in the verification section below about the source date for the international department details.

Insurance direct billing at a glance

Direct billing means the hospital invoices your insurer and you pay only any applicable co-pay or deductible. The figures below are the number of insurers each department had on file at the time of our research (July 2026); lists change — always confirm with your insurer before travelling.

Hospital	Insurer agreements	Source
Huashan International Medical Center	~100	Hospital international center page
Shanghai General IMCC	40	Shanghai municipal government international medical services page
Renji International Department	32	Hospital international department article
SCMC International Special Clinic	20+	Hospital international department page

For the other hospitals in this guide — Zhongshan, Ruijin, Huadong, Sixth People’s, IPMCH, First Maternity, Longhua, Xinhua, and Fudan Children’s — direct billing is described on their websites but the number of contracted insurers was not confirmed in our research. We check this for your specific insurer when you enquire.

What we could not verify yet

• Prices: no hospital publishes stable English price lists for international patients that we can copy here. We obtain a written quote on request for your specific visit and treatment and pass it on at the hospital’s own price, without markup.
• Practical English coverage: hospital websites describe international or multilingual service, but the actual extent of English at reception and with nursing staff varies. We confirm this by phone or email before you book.
• Longhua Hospital — foreign-patient access: we found no dedicated international clinic or English appointment process on the hospital website. We are confirming by phone whether coordinated international visits are possible, and will update this page.
• Shanghai First Maternity — international department details: the department is listed in hospital navigation but specific service scope and language support were not available on the website at the time of research.
• Huadong Hospital — special-needs department details: the language support, specialty count, and room figures come from a 2016 page on a Shanghai government-adjacent platform (sh-italent.cn), not the hospital’s own website. We are confirming current contact details and service scope directly with the hospital.
• Sixth People’s Hospital — international department details: English and Korean language support and floor location are based on a 2016 third-party source. We are confirming current information directly with the hospital.