China - Passing through Customer with items to declare

I'm traveling to Shanghai tomorrow for a trade show, and due to a cock-up with shipments I now find myself sharing the journey with exhibition stand and display materials. Looking at the Chinese Customs form, I'm going to be taking a trip down the red channel with items to declare (items of commercial value, advertising material etc).

Does anyone have any experience of this - have no idea what to expect, or what the likely tax/duty implications may be. None of the items will be staying in China beyond the end of next week.

Seeing as I'll now essentially be traveling with 2 oversized items, a suitcase and backpack, taxi is probably the only realistic way of getting from the airport to the hotel. Can anyone give me a ballpark of likely fare from Hongqiao Airport to the Grand Hyatt at Jin Mao Tower?

Thanks!

One might list the trade show materials as 'samples'... even if you have all the paperwork/receipts.

The taxi to the Hyatt will be about 100-125 rmb in normal traffic, there might even be some of the 2010 expo suv taxi's if you watch for them.

If it were me, I would try using the green channel, and plead ignorance if eventually redirected to the red channel. I mean, who are they to say that your brochures have commercial value. Furthermore, charging you a duty and then refunding it a few days later is much more annoying for them than not charging it at all. Be advised that I am not a lawyer; I'm just saying this is the way I would approach the situation. Also, bear in mind that I am very comfortable dealing with Chinese officials.

As for the taxi, it sounds like you're arriving at T1 (international flight, right?), which is 10 minutes closer in than T2 (and y15 cheaper), but this is all academic. I think 100 should be sufficient to get you to the GH, but you should obviously carry a bit more cash, just in case (you will need cash in Shanghai, anyway).


I'm traveling to Shanghai tomorrow for a trade show, and due to a cock-up with shipments I now find myself sharing the journey with exhibition stand and display materials. Looking at the Chinese Customs form, I'm going to be taking a trip down the red channel with items to declare (items of commercial value, advertising material etc).

Does anyone have any experience of this - have no idea what to expect, or what the likely tax/duty implications may be. None of the items will be staying in China beyond the end of next week.

Seeing as I'll now essentially be traveling with 2 oversized items, a suitcase and backpack, taxi is probably the only realistic way of getting from the airport to the hotel. Can anyone give me a ballpark of likely fare from Hongqiao Airport to the Grand Hyatt at Jin Mao Tower?

Thanks!

If it were me, I would try using the green channel, and plead ignorance if eventually redirected to the red channel. ).

+1

Every time I went to Beijing/Shanghai/Hainan/Qingdao etc.
on business, our China rep sent their car/driver
and greeter for airport to hotel trip.

When I carried exhibition cases, sometimes the rep
could take them and they showed up
at the exhibition space the next day !

You may not have that help,
but maybe book the hotel car to greet you.
Sure, it will cost more,
but is a reasonable expense after the long trip.

If it were me, I would try using the green channel, and plead ignorance if eventually redirected to the red channel. I mean, who are they to say that your brochures have commercial value.

I would agree in part - brochures have negligible value, however the nice and shiny equipment in one of the cases clearly is clearly worth more than peanuts.

The exhibition stand is also something that's going to stand out as being worth something. Walking through customs with a case almost as big as I am and that looks like two badly disguised torpedo tubes strapped together is kind of hard to miss.

My thinking was that by wandering down the red channel, at least I'm giving the impression I'm not sure whether I have anything to declare (which is pretty much the instruction on the customs form). They can easily wave me through if they don't care. Of course, not being able to speak a work of Chinese will only reinforce the confused foreigner stereotype.

Have to admit, this isn't quite what i had in mind for a first trip to China...

I would agree in part - brochures have negligible value, however the nice and shiny equipment in one of the cases clearly is clearly worth more than peanuts.

The exhibition stand is also something that's going to stand out as being worth something. Walking through customs with a case almost as big as I am and that looks like two badly disguised torpedo tubes strapped together is kind of hard to miss.

My thinking was that by wandering down the red channel, at least I'm giving the impression I'm not sure whether I have anything to declare (which is pretty much the instruction on the customs form). They can easily wave me through if they don't care. Of course, not being able to speak a work of Chinese will only reinforce the confused foreigner stereotype.

Have to admit, this isn't quite what i had in mind for a first trip to China...

I once brought 3 large commercial air purifiers through the green channel in Guangzhou. The boxes were clearly labeled, "commercial samples to be returned to the US on date xx/xx"; if the customs people had opened them, they would have seen reams of documentation about patents, uses, and the like, complete with all sorts of legal jargon (in Chinese and English). IIRC, I had to pass them through one of the xray/ag machines, but that was it... no problems whatsoever. If you were a (lowly paid) Chinese customs officer, you wouldn't want to deal with wading through those papers, doubly so at 6a.

To come to think of it, I've never seen anyone actually use the red channel upon his/her own volition.

While I'm no expert, I firmly believe that those guys care about Apple products and narcotics, but not much else.

I won't dissuade from playing it safe (especially since it's your first trip to China), but I honestly wouldn't lose much sleep over this... regardless of what channel you choose.

While I'm no expert, I firmly believe that those guys care about Apple products and narcotics, but not much else.
.

Add bibles to the list.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,405187,00.html

Chinese customs is a joke (or maybe they simply intended it to be like this). The only thing they're serious about is narcotics. 15-20 years ago they were somewhat serious in intercepting Chinese returning from overseas bringing in consumer electronics back when those were made in Japan, Korea or Taiwan (in order to charge an import duty), but that's completely moot these days.

Just about the only reason they exist this day and age at passenger airports is maintaining employment for those public employees. Have you noticed how bored they look all the time?

Chinese customs is a joke (or maybe they simply intended it to be like this). The only thing they're serious about is narcotics. 15-20 years ago they were somewhat serious in intercepting Chinese returning from overseas bringing in consumer electronics back when those were made in Japan, Korea or Taiwan (in order to charge an import duty), but that's completely moot these days.

Just about the only reason they exist this day and age at passenger airports is maintaining employment for those public employees. Have you noticed how bored they look all the time?

Yeah. A few years back my wife tripped a nuke alarm at customs. Nobody responded. The only reason we even knew it was a nuke scanner was she tripped another scanner that was manned. Even with that one I was not impressed with their security handling--at no point did they make any effort to determine what was hot. It was resolved purely by talking, she had forgotten the card from the lab. (It sat at home in the pocket of the jacket she originally planned to wear.)

I've never seen Chinese customs awake and not sleeping.

Well, they didn't even hand out a customs form and the red channel was closed, so green was the only option. Did get pulled from the line in order to have the luggage pushed through an x-ray machine, but the operator started the conveyor belt he turned around and continued talking to his colleagues.
All a worry about nothing...

Well, they didn't even hand out a customs form and the red channel was closed, so green was the only option. .

Green channel is for people bringing money into China.
Red channel for those expecting to get money out.

Green = USD
Red = RMB

Well, they didn't even hand out a customs form

Because there's no such thing as a custom form for air passengers entering China. The entry/exit form they hand out says nothing about goods brought into the country.

Because there's no such thing as a custom form for air passengers entering China. The entry/exit form they hand out says nothing about goods brought into the country.

They phased out that form about a year ago, but there was such a thing.

They phased out that form about a year ago, but there was such a thing.

There still is. But it's no longer required if you have nothing to declare.