China Address Format Guide: Structure & Examples

Dec 8, 2025

Updated: December 8, 2025

Table of Contents

China Address Format Guide

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the standard address format used in China. Whether you’re shipping packages, sending mail, or validating addresses for your business, understanding the proper address structure is essential for successful deliveries. We’ll cover the basic elements, provide examples, and explain how GeoPostcodes can help with address validation.

China - Address Format

An address format in China contains the following elements:

Recipient’s name
Business or department name (if applicable)
House Number and Street Name
District Name (County Name in Municipalities)
Prefecture Cities (if exists), Province Names and Postal Codes (6 digits)
Country – CHINA (in all caps)

John Smith
1 Tieshuxie St
Xicheng
Beijing 100031
CHINA

China Address Format Examples

Example 1:

John Smith
155 Qingchun Rd
Shangcheng District
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310006
CHINA

Example 2:

China Post Office
49-1 Heping Rd
Changtai
Zhangzhou, Fujian 363999
CHINA

Postal and Country Information for China

Country/territory name	China
ISO codes	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2: CN ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: CHN ISO 3166-1 numeric-1: 156
Administrative area count	31
Administration area names and abbreviations	Beijing Chongqing Shanghai Tianjin Anhui Fujian Gansu Guangdong Guizhou Hainan Hebei Heilongjiang Henan Hubei Hunan Jiangsu Jiangxi Jilin Liaoning Qinghai Shaanxi Shandong Shanxi Sichuan Yunnan Zhejiang Guangxi Inner Mongolia Ningxia Huizu Tibet Xinjiang	BJ CQ SH TJ AH FJ GS GD GZ HI HE HL HA HB HN JS JX JL LN QH SN SD SX SC YN ZJ GX NM NX XZ XJ
Term to describe postal codes	邮政编码
Postal code format	999999
Population	1 424 070 827
Total land area	9 391 910km²

How to Validate Addresses for China Using GeoPostcodes Database

GeoPostcodes offers comprehensive address validation database to validate China addresses. Our database ensures addresses follow the correct format for China, reducing delivery errors and improving efficiency.

Use GeoPostcodes:

Postal Database if you only need to validate Districts, Prefecture Cities, Provinces and Postal Codes in China
Population Database if you would like to do urban/rural mapping or compute how many people live in China segmented by postal code, city or administrative divisions

You can leverage GeoPostcodes data to validate addresses in China using:

Locality column to validate District names (outside the municipalities)
Region 3 column to validate County names (in the municipalities*)
Region 2 column to validate the Prefecture Cities (if applicable)
Region 1 column to validate Provinces
Postcode column to validate Postal Codes

*Municipalities exists in Region 1 and correspond to Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Explore our China address database.

Our location dataset for China

China ZIP Codes

China uses a “邮政编码” (postal code) system, which is a six-digit numeric format, like 999999, with no letters or separators. This format is similar to US ZIP codes in that both are numeric, but differs as China’s postal codes have six digits compared to the five digits of standard US ZIP codes, and they do not feature the ZIP+4 extension. According to the GeoPostcodes world postal code database, China has 40,690 postal codes covering 59,683 regions and 1,008,545 towns.

China ZIP & Administrative boundaries

China administrative landscape often follows inconsistent regional models and irregular public sources, making it difficult to maintain reliable boundaries. Our standardized postal and administrative boundary data resolves these gaps to ensure complete, coherent geographic coverage.

China Administrative Divisions

GeoPostcodes provides a standardized reference for China’s address structure, ensuring consistent, accurate, and globally aligned formatting across your systems. The dataset captures the official address elements required by the national postal operator and maps them into our unified global schema.