1001 Smart Cities
🇨🇳 Hangzhou

Health Code (健康码) — Hangzhou's Pandemic Status QR

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 1 sourced claim · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

1 sourced claim on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Hangzhou's health code spread to all 31 provincial-level administrations within 39 days. In May 2020 the city tried to make it a permanent 0-100 lifestyle score — backlash forced an immediate retreat.

Outcome🎯 Succeeded
Evidence🔬 Peer-reviewed
what does this mean?The strongest source behind this entry is an independent peer-reviewed or academic study. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byHangzhou Municipal Government (Yuhang district pilot), with Alibaba Cloud, Ant Financial/Alipay and DingTalk
Scale🏙️ City-wide

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 10 more in Hangzhou · 🪪 Digital government guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects

In February 2020, Hangzhou's Yuhang district built a QR pass with Alibaba Cloud, DingTalk and Alipay; the city launched a citywide, three-colour (green/yellow/red) health code on 11 February that gated entry to transit, offices and shops. Beijing had a national version built on the same template within days.

Completed 📅 2020–2022

📊 Impact

Within 39 days of Hangzhou's launch, all 31 of China's provincial-level administrations had adopted health-code systems built on its template.

🎓 Lesson

Built in days for a pandemic, the same city health commission tried to turn it into a permanent 0-100 lifestyle score in May 2020 — a public backlash forced an immediate retreat, but the app survived, rebuilt in 2023 as a medical-services portal after colour checks ended.

📡 Data & IoTDigital governmentHealth & careSafety & security

Sources

↗ How Alibaba built China's 'health code' system (TechNode)Published 7 April 2020Yuhang district task force with Ali Cloud/DingTalk/Alipay; colour-status meanings (green = travel freely, yellow = 1-week self-quarantine, red = 2-week home isolation).
↗ 杭州网 (Hangzhou News Center)Published 18 February 2020Yuhang pass precursor 10 Feb; citywide three-colour Hangzhou health code launched 11 Feb with 10 million first-day visits; provincewide 16 Feb; national version the same week.
↗ Decoding China's COVID-19 Health Code Apps: The Legal Challenges (peer-reviewed)Published 6 February 2020 archived copyTask force formed 6 Feb 2020, app launched 11 Feb; all 31 provincial governments adopted variants within 39 days.
↗ City's Plan for Permanent 'Health Codes' Sparks Online Backlash (Sixth Tone)Published 25 May 2020May 2020: Hangzhou Health Commission proposed a permanent 0-100 lifestyle score; 86% of a Weibo poll opposed it.
↗ Chinese City Faces Backlash Over Proposal to Make Health Tracking App Permanent (RADII)Published 27 May 2020Four days after the proposal, Hangzhou officials walked it back, calling the scored code conceptual only.
Show 1 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ 杭州政协网 (Hangzhou CPPCC)Published 20 January 2023January 2023: the health-code mini-program was rebuilt into a medical-services platform after nationwide colour-code venue checks ended in December 2022.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: 2020–2022. 6 of 6 sources carry a publication date, from 6 February 2020 to 20 January 2023.

When the sources were published

  1. PubMed Central (U.S. National Library of Medicine) · researchDecoding China's COVID-19 Health Code Apps: The Legal Challenges (peer-reviewed)
  2. Hangzhou News (Hangzhou city portal) · press杭州网 (Hangzhou News Center)
  3. TechNode · pressHow Alibaba built China's 'health code' system (TechNode)
  4. Sixth Tone · pressCity's Plan for Permanent 'Health Codes' Sparks Online Backlash (Sixth Tone)
  5. RADII · pressChinese City Faces Backlash Over Proposal to Make Health Tracking App Permanent (RADII)
  6. Hangzhou Municipal Committee of the CPPCC (杭州市政协) · city council杭州政协网 (Hangzhou CPPCC)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Entered the record

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 1 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 1 addressable claim, 6 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 1

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-fdba0a6d8940c0c0 quantitative
Within 39 days of Hangzhou's launch, all 31 of China's provincial-level administrations had adopted health-code systems built on its template
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
No support note recorded
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Decoding China's COVID-19 Health Code Apps: The Legal Challenges (peer-reviewed)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-20-source-dates effective 2026-08-03 · created 2026-08-20

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:f93de2774ec16c779e1134233a7896b8fbe2e8ce02513c779bb8fe03f7940a45
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
1
of 1 claims mapped
6
source dossiers
6
publication dates recorded
1
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Hangzhou Municipal Government (Yuhang district pilot), with Alibaba Cloud, Ant Financial/Alipay and DingTalk
Actor types
city-government, private
Funding model
Not recorded
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

6 source dossiers

How Alibaba built China's 'health code' system (TechNode) technode.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-06a011af0db7aea7
Publisher
Name not classified · technode.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-04-07
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Yuhang district task force with Ali Cloud/DingTalk/Alipay; colour-status meanings (green = travel freely, yellow = 1-week self-quarantine, red = 2-week home isolation).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
杭州网 (Hangzhou News Center) hznews.hangzhou.com.cn · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e5bc6ccc8aabbea0
Publisher
Name not classified · hznews.hangzhou.com.cn
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-02-18
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Yuhang pass precursor 10 Feb; citywide three-colour Hangzhou health code launched 11 Feb with 10 million first-day visits; provincewide 16 Feb; national version the same week.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Decoding China's COVID-19 Health Code Apps: The Legal Challenges (peer-reviewed) pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-d34748a4dc462590
Publisher
Name not classified · pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-02-06
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
Open archived copy ↗ · 2026-01-30
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Task force formed 6 Feb 2020, app launched 11 Feb; all 31 provincial governments adopted variants within 39 days.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
City's Plan for Permanent 'Health Codes' Sparks Online Backlash (Sixth Tone) sixthtone.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-10c16d87c5806114
Publisher
Name not classified · sixthtone.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-05-25
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

May 2020: Hangzhou Health Commission proposed a permanent 0-100 lifestyle score; 86% of a Weibo poll opposed it.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Chinese City Faces Backlash Over Proposal to Make Health Tracking App Permanent (RADII) radii.co · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-817c8e42b42bf93a
Publisher
Name not classified · radii.co
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-05-27
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Four days after the proposal, Hangzhou officials walked it back, calling the scored code conceptual only.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
杭州政协网 (Hangzhou CPPCC) hzzx.gov.cn · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e980c6b662a77602
Publisher
Name not classified · hzzx.gov.cn
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2023-01-20
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-03
Dossier created
2026-08-20
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

January 2023: the health-code mini-program was rebuilt into a medical-services platform after nationwide colour-code venue checks ended in December 2022.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇸🇬 TraceTogether & SafeEntry Digital Contact Tracing · Singapore Both are pandemic-era status apps now completed: Hangzhou's code (2020) became China's template; TraceTogether was retired in 2023. 🇨🇳 Suishenban: One Network for All Government Services · Shanghai Both are city-run Alipay-ecosystem super-apps: one emergency-built overnight, the other a deliberate multi-year e-gov build. 🇬🇧 Think Family Database and Insight Bristol's Risk-Scoring Models · Bristol Both compute a status for a person out of merged feeds. Hangzhou's was stood down; Bristol kept the collection.

Explore the wider context

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📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Health Code (健康码) — Hangzhou's Pandemic Status QR” — Hangzhou, China. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/hangzhou-health-code/ (last verified 2026-08-03). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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