1, All permits are now only given to climbers through authorized companies.
This has been the case since 2023. All independent climbers are not able to get permits from SMA. All permits have to be done by a company. All companies don’t solely sell a permit (and mandatory L/O) but will also sell services such as transport, porter, hotel booking, translator, etc.
2, SMA is the organization who gives permit to climbers, but there is more.
The China Climbing Laws & Regulations (Regulations for foreigners climbing in China) now has a very limited number of mountains that are open for climbing in Sichuan Province. Now many peaks are not given climbing permits to in Sichuan. SMA has the power to give permits to climbers but SMA is less powerful than before 2020. Now it’s the local sports administration decides which peaks are okay to be on the list and the list at present(2025) is very short now.
3, Independent Climbing by Domestic Climbers in China since 2020.
All independent climbing/first summits (non-commercial climbs) done by domestic Chinese climbers in the last 5 years are mostly done without a permit and nothing really happened to them. The remote places have basically zero checks by SMA and even if there are checks the checks are rather done by local authority.
4, Climbing without a Permit as a Foreigner.
Please read the “Regulations for Foreigners Climbing in China” for the consequences of climbing without permits in Sichuan. Normally the checks are done by the local authority, and the consequences for unauthorized climbs depend on how you respond to local authority checks.
Sichuan Mountain Guide only writes the above content based on the facts and we do not suggest you to climb mountains in Sichuan without a permit. To follow on the most recent updates and regulations or other easier ways of climbing in Sichuan, you may contact the following people for information:
