Couples & Honeymoon Travel in China: Sharing a Room, Booking One Bed and Getting Married

Travelling in China as a couple involves very little paperwork. At a hotel, each of you shows your own passport, and the front desk registers you both. Hotel registration rules ask only for each guest's ID, not a marriage certificate. To get one big bed instead of two singles, book a room type called a "big bed room" and check the bed type on the booking page. Marriage is stricter: two foreigners cannot register a marriage in mainland China at all. A foreigner and a Chinese citizen can, as long as both of you go in person to the right civil affairs office.

Sharing a Room and Getting One Big Bed

What the front desk checks. National rules require every hotel to check each guest's identity document and register them, and to report foreign guests to the local police within 24 hours. In practice, both of you hand over your passports at check-in and that is the whole process. Shanghai's 2025 hotel registration rules show what counts as ID: a government-issued document with your photo on it, such as a passport. The only time those rules tell staff to ask how guests are related is when a child is checking in. Nothing in the rules asks two adults to prove they are married, and that applies to any two adults sharing a room.

Do register both of you. Guests are not allowed to have someone stay overnight without registering, so if your partner arrives later, they should also show their passport at the front desk.

If one of you is a Chinese citizen, nothing changes: you each show your own ID (your partner shows their Chinese ID card), and each of you is registered separately.

Homestays and guesthouses follow the same rules. The national rule applies to any place that takes paying overnight guests. In Hunan province, for example, the hotel rules cover guesthouses, family inns and rural homestays as well, and they record a foreign guest's nationality and date of birth on top of the usual details. Expect the same passport check at a small inn as at a big hotel.

Hotels are not supposed to turn foreigners away. A 2024 notice from seven national departments says local authorities and booking platforms should not use licensing rules to stop hotels from hosting foreign guests, and hotels and platforms should not advertise that they refuse foreigners. A very small guesthouse may still be unsure how to register a foreign passport, so for a tiny place it is worth sending a quick message before you book. If you have a problem with lodging, the 12367 immigration service line takes questions and complaints in Chinese and English; from a foreign phone, dial +86 12367.

Staying with your partner's family instead of a hotel is different, because then nobody registers you automatically. You need to register with the local police within 24 hours of arriving. You or your host can do it at the local police station or, since September 2026, online through the National Immigration Administration's app and website. The first online registration at a new address should be done with your host's help, since they know the address details. Our guide to hotel booking and registration rules walks through both cases.

Booking the right bed. Chinese room listings use a few standard names:

• 大床房 (dà chuáng fáng, "big bed room"): one double, queen or king bed. This is the one most couples want.
• 双床房 (shuāng chuáng fáng, "twin room"), also called 标间 (biāojiān, "standard room"): two single beds. A "standard room" means two beds, not one; if an English listing just says "Standard Room", check the bed count.
• 套房 (tàofáng, "suite"): a separate living area plus a bedroom.

English booking sites usually translate these as "King", "Queen" or "Double" for one bed and "Twin" for two. Check the bed type on the room you are actually paying for, not just the hotel photos, and add a note to the booking asking for one big bed. Extra beds and children sharing the room are set by each hotel, so read the hotel's policy section before you add a third person. A Ministry of Commerce guide for foreign business visitors, republished on Beijing's government site, names Trip.com as a way for foreigners to book hotels and pay with an international card. On Trip.com the bed type is listed under each room option.

For picking the hotel itself, see our luxury hotels guide for special-occasion stays and our overview of types of accommodation if you are weighing a boutique inn against a chain hotel.

Can You Get Married in China?

Two foreigners: no. Mainland China does not register marriages between two foreign citizens. The Shanghai and Beijing government guides both say so. If you are both foreigners, plan to marry legally at home or in another country, and treat China as the honeymoon or a ceremony without legal effect. Your own embassy can tell you what your country's law allows.

A foreigner and a Chinese citizen: yes. Under China's Marriage Registration Regulation, in force since 10 May 2025, the marriage is registered by the civil affairs department of a province (or a city like Beijing or Shanghai), or an office it designates. Both of you must apply together in person, nobody can apply on your behalf, and registration is free. The basic conditions are a minimum age of 22 for the man and 20 for the woman, full consent from both people, and neither of you already married.

The foreign partner needs two main documents: a valid passport and a certificate showing you are not married (a "single status" certificate). That certificate is issued in your home country and then authenticated, or issued directly by your country's embassy in China. Since 7 November 2023, if your country is a member of the Apostille Convention, an apostille on the certificate replaces the old embassy authentication step.

Cities add their own details, and they matter for visitors:

• Shanghai lets you register at the city office or any district office no matter where you live. The single status certificate is valid for six months from issue, it needs a Chinese translation, you bring three photos of the two of you together, and there is an English service line on +86 21 6432 5088. The details are on the Shanghai government's marriage registration guide.
• Beijing requires one of you to work or live in Beijing and asks for proof, such as a residence permit or work documents, so a couple where neither partner lives or works in Beijing will not qualify there. The Beijing government's marriage guide lists the district offices.

For any other city, call the local civil affairs office before you travel and ask for its current document list.

If the trip is a honeymoon rather than a wedding, our West Lake guide and 3-day Shanghai itinerary are good starting points for the route.

Wedding Photos and Drones at Famous Sights

Taking ordinary photos of each other is fine almost everywhere. A full shoot with a hired photographer is another matter: the Forbidden City, for example, does not allow commercial photography without permission, and its exhibition halls ban tripods, stands and selfie sticks. Other parks and sights set their own rules, so if you plan a professional shoot, ask the site's management office first (see our Forbidden City guide for visiting rules there). Drones must be registered under the owner's real name, and the airspace around important cultural relics, airports and transport hubs is controlled, so you cannot fly there without approval.

Last updated: November 2026