People's Republic of China passport

People's Republic of China passport 中华人民共和国护照
The front cover of an ordinary Chinese biometric passport since 15 May 2012.
Issued by	China
Type of document	Passport
Eligibility requirements	Chinese nationals with Hukou residing in Mainland China, or Chinese nationals residing abroad who do not qualify for travel documents issued by Hong Kong or Macau
Expiration	10 years after acquisition for adults aged 16 or over, 5 for children
Cost	¥200 for first passport ¥220 for renewed passport

¥200 for first passport

The People's Republic of China passport (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国护照; traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國護照; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó hùzhào), commonly referred to as the Chinese passport, is the passport issued to nationals of the People's Republic of China (PRC) who have registered as a resident of Mainland China hence hold a hukou, for the purpose of the international travel.

In 2014, China issued 16 million passports, ranking first in the world, surpassing the U.S. (14 million) and India (10 million). As of 2012, over 38 million Chinese nationals hold ordinary passports, comprising only 2.86% of the total population at the time. The number of ordinary passports in circulation raised to 120 million as of October 2016, which was approximately 8.7% of the population.

Articles 3, 4, 5 and 8 of the Passport Law of the People's Republic of China, which went into effect in 2007, declares three types of passports issued in Mainland China:

Article 9 of the Law states that the "issuing scope of diplomatic passports and service passports, the measures for issue of such passports, their terms of validity and the specific categories of service passports shall be prescribed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".

The ordinary passport is considered as passports "for private affairs" (因私护照), while service (including for public affairs passports) and diplomatic passports are passports "for public affairs" (因公护照).

The passports for Macau and Hong Kong SARs are issued and regulated by the governments of these regions, hence are not covered in this law.

From July 2011, the Chinese government has already rolled out biometric versions of diplomatic passports, service passports and passports for public affairs. The launch date of biometric ordinary passports was May 15, 2012.

Diplomatic e-passport

Service e-passport

Public Affairs e-passport

Ordinary e-passport