China's Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that it would set up a 24-hour hotline to assist Chinese travelers abroad.
The new hotline, officials said, would be available to any Chinese citizen no matter where they are in the world. Set to begin this year, the hotline will enable Chinese travelers to seek "consular assistance and protection" if and when they run into difficulties or emergencies while abroad.
This is the first time that Chinese citizens abroad will have access to a unified emergency response system and the system will "mark a milestone in improving the level of consular protection and service," officials said. Works to establish the hotline, said consular affairs department director Huang Ping, began last year when they realized the tremendous amount of work needed at assist Chinese citizens traveling abroad.
According to ministry calculations, there are more than 20,000 Chinese businesses spread over 200 countries or regions and Chinese citizens made an estimated 98.2 million trips abroad last year. Chinese embassies and consulates, said Huang, handled over 42,000 consular protection and assistance cases including providing assistance to Chinese citizens in some of the year's major events such as the Boston Marathon bombing and the recent fighting in South Sudan.
The purpose of the hotline, said Huang, is to provide Chinese citizens abroad with the level of service that matches China's status as the world's second largest economy.
The hotline number will be 12308. However, Chinese citizens abroad will first have to dial the country code for China, which is 0086, to get access.