Health checkups · China
What a health checkup in China actually costs
Public hospitals in China run dedicated checkup centres, and several of them publish their package prices openly. We read four of those price lists so you can see real numbers, what each package contains, and the one question that decides whether a package is worth it: includes what, exactly?
The comparison trap
Two packages, one name, different tests
China has a large, well-developed market for preventive screening, and hospital-run checkup centres (体检中心) are usually far cheaper than equivalent private executive-health products in the US or UK. The catch is that packages are not standardised. Two “executive checkups” at the same price can contain completely different tests, and a package name tells you almost nothing.
At the four hospitals whose price lists we read, a “basic” package generally means: physical examination, blood count, urine test, liver and kidney function panels, blood sugar, blood lipids, a chest X-ray or low-dose CT, an abdominal ultrasound and an ECG. Everything above that — tumour markers, thyroid and carotid ultrasound, bone density, gastroscopy, head MRI — appears in some mid-range packages and not others.
Level B · Hospital-published prices
What public hospitals actually publish
These are not marketing prices. They come from hospital price-publicity pages and from the hospitals’ own health-management centres, published under China’s medical-price publicity rules. We reproduce them as published, in RMB.
| Hospital (all public) | Package | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Wenzhou Medical University First Affiliated Hospital Price publicity notice, Sep 2025 |
Pre-employment checkup | ¥359.70 |
| Basic package (male / female) | ¥1,100 / ¥1,457.50 | |
| In-depth package I (male) | ¥2,720.85 | |
| Premium package A (male / female) | ¥7,761.65 / ¥8,602.23 | |
| The Eighth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University Health management centre, Feb 2025 |
Age-50 comprehensive package (male) | ¥4,624.90 |
| Jilin Provincial People’s Hospital Health management centre list, Nov 2025 edition |
Economy package (male / female) | ¥640 / ¥712 |
| VIP package (male / female) | ¥4,844 / ¥5,048 | |
| Jiangmen Central Hospital Health management centre list, Jul 2025 edition |
Package A, age 18–25 (male / female) | ¥778.73 / ¥898.83 |
| Premium checkup package 1, age 40+ (male / female) | ¥3,068.01 / ¥3,283.53 |
Why prices end in odd decimals. Each package is the sum of the government-priced items inside it. That is a good sign, not a strange one: it means the package price is built from itemised, regulated unit prices rather than invented for the brochure.
About these four hospitals. We picked them because their price lists are public and dated, not because they are recommendations. We have not inspected any of them, and a published price list says nothing about the quality of a specific doctor.
If you would rather build your own
Single-item prices from the same lists
Checkup centres let you book items individually. These unit prices come from the same published lists, and they line up with what China’s National Healthcare Security Administration said publicly in May 2025: that some provinces had lowered CT to around ¥200 and MRI to around ¥500 per scan.
| Item | Published price | Source list |
|---|---|---|
| CT scan, plain, per body region | ¥286 – 290 | Jiangmen / Jilin lists |
| MRI, plain, per body region | ¥500 – 550 | Jiangmen / Jilin lists |
| Abdominal ultrasound | ¥95 – 120 | Jilin / Jiangmen lists |
| Gastroscopy (scope fee, before medication and anaesthesia) | ¥223 – 431 | Jilin / Jiangmen lists |
| Thyroid ultrasound | ¥95 | Jilin list |
| Chest X-ray (PA) | ¥50 | Jilin list |
Reading the CT and MRI rows. China is mid-way through a national re-pricing of imaging. The National Healthcare Security Administration said in May 2025 that provinces completing its new imaging price schedule had cut CT to roughly ¥200 and MRI to roughly ¥500; the hospital figures above, published around the same period, sit just above that line. Prices also vary by city tier and by whether contrast dye is used — contrast studies cost more.
Scope
What a package price does and does not cover
✓Usually inside the package price
- The listed tests themselves, at the itemised unit prices
- General physical examination and doctor’s review 一般检查 · 总检
- Basic report with the centre’s summary
- Specimen collection fees, in most lists
+Commonly charged separately
- Sedation or anaesthesia for gastroscopy / colonoscopy
- Medication and bowel preparation kits
- Pathology on any sample taken
- Gynaecology add-ons for married women, priced as separate lines
- Re-tests or follow-up imaging after a finding
- English translation of the report, where offered at all
Level C · No matching product
Why there is no US column on this page
There is no honest US figure to put next to these numbers, and the reason is structural: the “checkup package” as sold in China does not exist as a standard US product. In the United States, an annual physical is typically covered by insurance, and each additional test — a CT, a ultrasound, a tumour-marker panel — is billed separately through a system of negotiated rates that varies by insurer, by facility and by postcode. No national body publishes an average price for “a checkup”, because there is no such bundled thing to average.
Any page that prints “China checkup $150 vs US checkup $1,200” is comparing a bundled, regulated, itemised price against a number with no defined scope. We will not do that. What we can say, honestly, is this: the unit prices above are real, published, and dramatically below the list prices you would see on a US hospital estimate for the same single test — and if you want to verify the claim for your own situation, ask a US facility for a good-faith estimate of one CT scan and compare it to the ¥286–290 row above, converting at the day’s rate.
Judgement, not volume
More tests is not better screening
The most expensive package on this page is not the best one; it is just the longest list. Screening tests earn their place by matching your age, sex, family history and actual risk — not by filling a brochure. A whole-body CT in a symptom-free adult adds radiation and cost without a proven benefit, and a wall of tumour markers produces false positives that then need more tests to resolve.
A practical sequence: decide which questions you actually want answered (cardiac risk? cancer screening appropriate to your age? a specific symptom?), pick the cheapest package that answers them, and add single items from the unit-price table only where justified. If you have symptoms, a checkup centre is the wrong door entirely — book the relevant outpatient department, where a doctor orders tests for a reason instead of by bundle.
Practicalities
Booking, reports, and language
Choose and book
Most centres book through WeChat or phone; international departments will correspond by email. Ask for the package contents as an itemised list, and confirm the total price in writing. Fasting is required — typically 8–10 hours, water included in some centres’ rules.
Half a morning, mostly
Basic packages finish in one morning; full-day packages with endoscopy or imaging take longer. Bring your passport — it is the identity document the centre will register and print on the report.
Days, not weeks — in Chinese
Most centres issue results within about a week, with a review consultation included. Reports are in Chinese. English translation is not standard; ask before booking whether an English report or a bilingual summary is available, and at what price.
Questions we get
Straight answers
Are checkups in China actually cheap?
By the unit prices, yes — a published CT scan at ¥286–290 is a real, sourced figure, not a promotional one. But the meaningful comparison is scope-for-scope: pick a package, list its contents, and price the same contents at home. We publish no savings percentage, because the US side has no comparable published figure to put in the division.
Can I just walk in?
Most centres want a booking, and popular time slots (weekends, post-holiday weeks) fill up. Booking also fixes the price: the lists we read all note that the final charge follows the items actually performed. Walk-ins are possible at some centres, but a booked, itemised, written quote protects you better.
Will my insurance reimburse this?
US insurers generally have no direct network with mainland Chinese hospitals. What works, sometimes, is out-of-network reimbursement: an itemised invoice with the facility name, dates, test names and codes. Ask the centre before paying whether it issues English itemised invoices for foreign patients. A one-line receipt for “health examination” will usually be rejected.
Is the quality good?
That is not a question a price list answers, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can say: these are public hospitals operating under China’s licensing system, their prices are regulated item-by-item, and the centres follow national clinical practice for what a package contains. For anything that depends on individual judgement — whether a finding needs follow-up, which tests fit your history — the deciding factor is the clinician, not the centre. See hospitals in China for how to read tiers and licences.
What if they find something?
Then you move from the screening price list to ordinary care, and the sensible move is to have the images and reports, and decide at home or in a specialist department whether follow-up is needed. Do not let a same-day upsell — an immediate add-on scan, an immediate treatment plan — turn a screening visit into an unbudgeted procedure. A real finding survives a second opinion; it does not need to be treated in the building where it was found.
Sources & method
Where every number on this page comes from
Four hospital price lists and one government statement. All are linked so you can check them yourself.
Comparing packages right now?
Send us two package contents lists and we will tell you, in plain English, what each one actually contains and where the scope differs. No referral fee, no clinic recommendation.