Chinese Phone Number Format: 11 Digits for a Mobile, 零 First for a Landline
Every digit in a Chinese phone number is a word you already know. What makes them hard is that you do not know how many are coming. A mobile number is always 11 digits, so your ear can count against a fixed target. A landline is an area code plus a local number, and depending on the city and on whether the caller is local, the same building's phone can arrive as 8 syllables or as 12.
This guide covers both shapes, why a landline opens with 零 (líng, zero), and how to use length as the first thing you decide. Every example plays real Mandarin audio, the exact clips the countfu app uses.
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A mobile number is 11 digits, and it always opens with 幺
Mainland mobile numbers are 11 digits long with no exceptions. The first three are a carrier block, and every carrier block begins with 1, which in a phone number is said 幺 (yāo) rather than 一 (yī):
The fixed length is worth more than it looks. It is a free check on your own work: if you wrote 10 digits or 12, you dropped one or doubled one, and you know that before anyone tells you.
The reason 1 is pronounced yāo has its own guide, along with the 3-4-4 grouping that mobile numbers are printed in. That grouping is how a helpful speaker delivers a number. A speaker who is not being helpful runs straight through, and a landline has no agreed grouping to fall back on at all.
A landline is an area code plus a local number
Chinese area codes are two or three digits. The big cities have the short ones: 10 for Beijing, 20 for Guangzhou, 21 for Shanghai, 22 for Tianjin, 23 for Chongqing, and so on down a short list that also covers Nanjing (25), Wuhan (27), Chengdu (28) and Xi'an (29). Everywhere else has a three-digit code, such as 755 for Shenzhen or 571 for Hangzhou.
When you dial from another city you put a 0 in front of the area code. That 0 is a trunk prefix rather than part of the code, but it is spoken, so a landline read out in full starts with 零. A two-digit area code plus an eight-digit local number gives 11 syllables, the same length as a mobile:
Note that every zero is spoken. Digit strings have no shortcut for a run of zeros. In a composed number one 零 can stand in for a whole gap, which is why 三百零五 is 305, and the 零 rule for composed numbers is a separate skill. In a phone number, one 零 is one 0, always, and three zeros in a row are three syllables.
A three-digit area code pushes the number to twelve
Most cities have a three-digit code, which adds one more syllable at the front. With an eight-digit local number that comes to 12, the longest thing you will be asked to hold:
The area code there is 751, and listen to what happens to its 1: it is 幺, not 一. The digit-string rule is not about which part of the number you are in, it covers the whole reading, so Beijing's 010 comes out as 零幺零 (líng yāo líng) and Shanghai's 021 as 零二幺 (líng èr yāo). If you are waiting for yī to tell you a 1 has gone past, you will lose the area code before the number has properly started.
Twelve digits is roughly the point where holding the whole number in your head stops working. The fix is not concentration. It is writing while you listen, so that what you have to hold is never more than the last two or three digits.
Inside the city, the area code disappears
Local callers do not dial the area code, so they do not say it either. What you get instead is the bare local number: 7 or 8 digits, no 零 at the front, over almost before you have started writing.
Do not read the opening syllable as a label. Yāo at the start can be the 1 of a mobile block or just a local number that happens to begin with 1, and líng at the start is a trunk prefix. Those are the only two openings that carry information, and only one of them is reliable. Everything else you learn from length.
The Chinese phone number format at a glance
| What it is | Digits | Opens with | Example reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | 11 | 幺 | 幺三九… |
| Local landline, no area code | 7 or 8 | any digit | 幺零八九三四三八 |
| Landline, two-digit area code | 11 | 零 | 零二三… |
| Landline, three-digit area code | 11 or 12 | 零 | 零七五幺… |
| Emergency and service lines | 3 | 幺 | 幺幺零 (110) |
| Company service numbers | 10 | 四 or 八 | 400 and 800 lines |
The short ones are worth memorising as whole sounds rather than as digits, because they come up constantly and they go past fast. Police 110 is 幺幺零 (yāo yāo líng), ambulance 120 is 幺二零, fire 119 is 幺幺九, directory enquiries 114 is 幺幺四, and the China Mobile service line 10086 is 幺零零八六.
Why the length is the hard part
With a mobile you get one thing for free: you know when the number ends. With a landline you do not, so you have to trust that you caught the stop rather than missing a digit at the tail. Countfu's landline audio is generated at mixed lengths on purpose, anywhere from 8 digits to 12, so there is nothing to settle into. Two habits carry straight over:
- Start writing on the first digit. Waiting for the whole number and then writing it out is what loses the tail. Your pen should be one or two digits behind your ear the entire time, not eleven.
- Count the zeros separately. Runs of 零 are where digits actually go missing, because the syllable repeats and your ear stops marking each one. Three líng in a row is three characters on the page.
Try these cold, then check yourself:
- 零二零八六六三四五二幺 (líng èr líng bā liù liù sān sì wǔ èr yāo) = 020 8663 4521, a Guangzhou landline
- 幺五九零零幺二三四五六 (yāo wǔ jiǔ líng líng yāo èr sān sì wǔ liù) = 159 0012 3456, a mobile
- 幺幺零 (yāo yāo líng) = 110
- 零五七幺八八零零幺二三四 (líng wǔ qī yāo bā bā líng líng yāo èr sān sì) = 0571 8800 1234, a Hangzhou landline
Catch the whole number, not most of it
Countfu plays real Mandarin phone numbers at native speed, you type the digits. Free on the App Store.
Get countfu on the App StoreRelated reading
- Chinese Phone Numbers: Why 1 Is Pronounced Yāo (幺): the substitution itself, plus the 3-4-4 grouping mobiles are printed in.
- 零 (Líng) in Chinese Numbers: One Zero Covers Any Gap: the opposite behaviour, where one 零 stands in for a whole run of zeros.
- 2001 in Mandarin: Why Years Are Read Digit by Digit: the other everyday digit string, and why it takes 二 rather than 两.
Frequently asked questions
How many digits is a Chinese phone number?
A mainland mobile number is 11 digits and never any other length. A landline is not fixed: the local number alone is 7 or 8 digits, and adding the area code brings it to 11 or 12. So length alone tells you which kind of number you just heard.
Why does a Chinese landline number start with 0?
The 0 is the trunk prefix you dial before an area code when you are calling from another city. It is not part of the area code itself, but it is said out loud, so a landline read in full opens with 零 (líng). A number that opens with 零 is a landline with its area code attached.
Is the 1 in 021 pronounced yī or yāo?
Yāo. The digit-string rule covers the whole phone number, area code included, so 021 is read 零二幺 (líng èr yāo). The same applies to 010 for Beijing, which is read 零幺零 (líng yāo líng).
Do you say the area code when calling within the same city?
No. Inside the city people give and dial the local number only, which is 7 or 8 digits with no 零 at the front. The area code goes on when the call crosses cities, and that is when you hear the extra syllables.
How are Chinese emergency and service numbers read out?
Digit by digit, with the same substitutions as any other phone number. Police 110 is 幺幺零 (yāo yāo líng), ambulance 120 is 幺二零, fire 119 is 幺幺九, and the China Mobile service line 10086 is 幺零零八六.