Gao made his debut for the Chinese national team against South Korea on 31 July 2005 in the 2005 East Asian Football Championship where he was sent off mistakenly by referee Yuichi Nishimura; The East Asian Football Federation cancelled Gao's red card and apologized to him the next day. After that inauspicious start to his international career, Gao started to impose himself within the team, and despite making his debut in 2005 for the national team, Gao had to wait until 21 January 2009 to score his first goal in a 6-1 win against Vietnam during 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification, scoring a hat-trick.