a country · ChinaChina

Two flows at once. Chinese patients are among the largest groups of foreign patients recorded in South Korea and Japan; inside China, a designated zone at Boao Lecheng on Hainan is allowed to use medicines and devices approved abroad but not yet registered on the mainland, which turns a regulatory gap into a destination.

The State Council's own account, published on 5 July 2025, reports that the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone received "over 410,000 medical visitors, up 36.76 percent year on year" in 2024, drew 188,300 in the first part of 2025 "from countries including Canada, Spain, Russia, Uzbekistan and Cuba", holds "over 30 top-tier domestic and international medical institutions", and has used "485 advanced medicines and medical devices approved overseas but not yet available in the domestic market" to treat "over 130,000 patients".

Inference — the release does not break the 410,000 down by country of residence, and the zone's founding purpose is to give Chinese patients access to therapies not yet registered in China. Most of those visitors are therefore very likely Chinese, travelling domestically. The figure is real and the framing is not: this is a count of people reaching a regulatory exception, not a count of foreigners flying to China for treatment.

The outbound side is documented by the receiving state. South Korea's health ministry recorded China as the second-largest source of its 1.17 million foreign patients in 2024, with arrivals from China up 132.4 per cent.

Trade practice — what Chinese patients buy abroad clusters in dermatology, cosmetic surgery, screening and fertility, with oncology and cell therapy for those who can pay for them. What the state is building at Lecheng is the same list, onshore.

Trade practice — the Lecheng route runs through a hospital in the zone, which applies for permission to import the specific product for the specific patient. Prices are set by the institution and paid privately; the national insurance schemes do not cover the imported items. A foreign patient reaching a mainland hospital outside the zone deals with the hospital's own international department, and the language requirement is absolute.

The zone's 2024 figure is the most recent published in the source read for this record. No national count of foreign patients treated in China was read.