An adult Chinese striped hamster weighs , and has a body length of  with a tail of . It is smaller and has a much shorter tail than the greater long-tailed hamster, Tscherskia triton, which inhabits much of the same range.
An adult Chinese striped hamster weighs , has a body length of  with a tail of , and is smaller with a shorter tail than the greater long-tailed hamster, Tscherskia triton, which also lives in the same region.