Child vaccination records and clinic appointments in China

Keep the administrative route separate from the 2026 clinical schedule

The 2026 national childhood programme contains clinical schedule and vaccine-specific material. That subject is outside the scope of this administrative page and is not published here as individual guidance. This R1 page does not reproduce, summarize or convert that source into a child-specific plan. It contains no dose, age, interval, catch-up, health-state or vaccine-selection instruction.

Use this page only to organize documents, identity, clinic verification, appointments and record transfer. A complete administrative file does not prove that an entry is clinically equivalent, that a record is complete or that a child should receive anything. A qualified vaccination professional must review the child, original evidence and current official rules and document the provider's decision.

Do not use a search snippet, school message, travel form, another child's record or an earlier edition to create a schedule. This site does not publish an unreviewed clinical schedule as individual guidance. The vaccination entity's assessment remains necessary.

This R1 guide handles records and appointments only. The 2026 schedule is a separate R3 clinical subject and is not reproduced here.

Build a source-labelled record inventory

Gather the original paper vaccination certificate, provider-issued printouts, exports or screenshots from official systems, overseas records, school or childcare evaluation documents and any official replacement or transfer evidence. Label every item with the issuing institution or system, child name, identity shown, language, date obtained and whether it is an original, certified copy, printout, translation or screenshot. Keep the original source beside any translation.

Record exactly what the source says without normalizing product names, changing dates, filling blank fields or deciding that two labels are equivalent. If handwriting or a translation is unclear, mark it unclear and show the original to the vaccination entity. A family spreadsheet can index documents but is not an official certificate and should never replace the provider record.

Include the child's current and prior identity documents where relevant, the guardian's accepted identity, current contact details and residence information requested by the local clinic. Keep these files securely. Do not post the child's certificate or health information publicly to ask which entry is missing.

• Original vaccination certificate
• Provider-issued record printouts
• Official electronic-system exports or screenshots
• Overseas records in the original language
• Translation with its source and translator identified
• Child and guardian identity documents requested locally
• Official school or childcare evaluation document if applicable

Locate the official local vaccination entity

Use the current municipal, district health, disease-control or government service source to identify the vaccination entity serving the child's residence or the service being requested. Then contact that entity directly. Confirm its legal name, address, vaccination-clinic name, official telephone, service hours, population or residence scope and whether the requested administrative service is handled there. Do not assume that every hospital, children's hospital, international clinic or community centre is authorized for every vaccination service.

The 2026 national supervision framework distinguishes designated entities for national-programme work and filed entities for other vaccination work and requires oversight of qualifications, notices, assessment and records. That framework does not operate a national patient-facing directory. Local authorities publish and update the usable entity information. Shanghai's current rules, for example, require publication of filed non-programme entity names, addresses, service times and telephone numbers; that rule applies only in Shanghai and only within its stated scope.

Changning District's current page routes children living there to the vaccination clinic at the community health service centre serving the residence and says children arriving from elsewhere may bring an existing certificate. Treat that as a Shanghai local example. Ask the responsible authority or clinic how residence, temporary residence, school location or another local factor affects the route where the family actually lives.

• Official local authority or disease-control source
• Vaccination entity's legal name and clinic name
• Address and telephone
• Current service scope and population served
• Date the entity information was checked

Confirm appointment and record-opening steps with the clinic

Ask the exact vaccination entity whether an appointment is required, which official channel it uses and whether the child must first complete record establishment, retrieval or transfer. Record the appointment status, entity, date, child identity and reference. An appointment request, a completed local file and a confirmed service are separate states. If the online route rejects a foreign identity document or telephone number, call the clinic for its official alternative instead of using another person's identity.

Local digital routes can separate family members by locally defined categories. Beijing's 2026 English guide explicitly says its shown mini-program route does not cover every child and directs families outside that route to contact the nearest vaccination clinic and bring the prior certificate when record establishment is needed. The route, screens and category boundary are Beijing-specific and should not be copied as a national app instruction.

A current Dongcheng notice lists local community vaccination clinics and several appointment channels. It demonstrates that local authorities may combine an app, mini-program, telephone and on-site assistance, but it does not guarantee the same service hours, entity list, document support or booking window in another Beijing district or city. Save the current clinic confirmation rather than relying on an old walkthrough.

• Appointment required or walk-in route
• Record establishment, retrieval or transfer required first
• Official app, mini-program, telephone or desk
• Foreign identity support or official alternative route
• Appointment reference and change channel

Match identity before creating or changing the file

Compare the child's name, date of birth, sex marker where recorded, certificate number, current identity document and prior identity document across every source. Ask the clinic which document it uses as the local file identifier and how it records a foreign passport, new passport or different name order. Confirm the guardian's identity and contact details separately from the child's identity. The adult's account or telephone number should not replace the child as the person represented by the vaccination file.

The 2023 national work standards direct vaccination entities to establish and maintain electronic files, obtain records after a move and control duplicates. If an existing local file cannot be found, show the certificate and prior evidence and ask the responsible entity whether it will retrieve, correct, merge or formally recreate the file. Do not open a new record merely because spelling, transliteration, document type or passport number differs.

Request written or system-visible confirmation after a correction. Keep the prior identity evidence and the clinic's correction reference with the record inventory. Do not alter a paper certificate, erase an entry or edit a screenshot to make fields match.

A guardian account and a child's vaccination file are not the same identity. Correct mismatches through the responsible entity instead of creating a duplicate.

Let the vaccination professional assess the record and child

Bring the original sources and answer the vaccination professional's questions about the child and record accurately. The national work standards place identity checks, record review, pre-service assessment, information verification and documentation with the vaccination entity and its trained staff. This administrative page cannot perform that work or confirm that a child is eligible for a service.

Ask the professional to identify any record entry it cannot verify, any translation or product detail it needs and the official next administrative step. Do not ask a receptionist, school, translator or this website to decide clinical equivalence or create a plan. If the entity needs information from a previous provider, ask what record or contact route it accepts.

This guide intentionally provides no list of health conditions, contraindications, doses, ages, intervals, catch-up instructions or vaccine recommendations. Do not infer a clinical answer from the absence of a warning on an appointment page. The qualified provider must apply current official clinical sources to the individual assessment.

Retrieve and protect the official certificate or record

Ask the vaccination entity what official evidence it can issue or update: the paper certificate, a provider printout, an electronic record, a completion-assessment document for a stated purpose or another locally recognized product. Confirm the child's identity, issuing entity, issue date and whether the document is final. Keep a secure scan, but preserve the original and do not remove pages or overwrite entries.

If the certificate is lost, contact the responsible local vaccination entity and ask what identity and prior-record evidence is required to retrieve information or issue a replacement. The 2023 national work standards require entities to reissue a certificate where the certificate is absent or lost, but actual record availability and the local request process still matter. Weihai's government response illustrates one local retrieval route and explicitly depends on the records available there; it is not a national guarantee of what every clinic can recover.

For school or childcare use, ask the receiving institution what official product it requires and where it is generated. Nanjing's 2026 page accepts either a locally generated completion-assessment report or the paper certificate for its stated route. That document name, portal and covered school stages are local and should not be presented as a nationwide form.

• Official certificate or replacement
• Provider-issued record printout
• Electronic record export if available
• Purpose-specific evaluation document if requested
• Issuing entity, child identity and issue date

Transfer the file after a move or an external record

Before moving, ask the current vaccination entity how to obtain a current certificate or printout and whether any electronic transfer or destination information is available. At the destination, take the complete source-labelled inventory to the officially responsible entity and ask it to retrieve the electronic file, verify the match and complete the local transfer. Keep the old and new entity names, dates and references.

The 2023 national work standards describe retrieval of an electronic file for a child living away from the original place and allow the receiving entity to use certificate content when electronic information cannot be obtained. Those are provider operations, not permission for a family to transcribe entries or decide what the destination system should contain. The receiving entity must verify and record the information.

If a service occurred outside the home province or system, ask which clinic must import or supplement the record. Zhangjiagang's health commission tells local families to take the certificate to the original-residence clinic so an external entry can be imported or entered. That is a useful local example, not proof that every city uses the original clinic, the same system or the same technical step.

Transfer the existing official file where possible. Do not create a second record or manually convert an overseas or out-of-area history into a clinical plan.

Keep local procedure claims local

Label every operational statement with its city, district, vaccination entity and check date. Beijing's mini-program, Dongcheng's clinic list, Changning's residence-based route, Shanghai's entity-filing rule, Nanjing's school document and Zhangjiagang's record-import answer each serve a different local purpose. None creates a national appointment platform, document list, clinic assignment or transfer workflow.

Recheck a local source before publishing or relying on it, especially after a move, school change, passport change or clinic closure. Shanghai's current non-programme entity rules expressly require record handover and public notice when a filed entity ends service, but another locality may publish the successor route differently. If an old entity no longer appears, contact the responsible district authority or disease-control service rather than sending records to an unverified address.

Use national standards for the stable record-management principles and current local sources for the actual entity, appointment, identity and document procedure. Where the two layers do not answer an individual question, ask the responsible vaccination professional and record the response without turning it into a nationwide rule.