Since I always travel with a DSLR camera, several lenses, plus my laptop and all the batteries and rechargers, I've come to accept it as routine to empty my entire carryon case (only slight exaggeration) when going through security. I ran into a special problem last May, when flying back from PVG. I had bought these nifty nail clipping kits in Yangzhou to give to my U.S. friends. To my chagrin they were spotted by the xray machine and declared to be dangerous. This happened after immigration, so I had technically left China, so they took away my passport and escorted me out to landside to have the kits sent as checked luggage. (The other option was to throw them away.) I got my passport back when I returned, but I still needed to empty out my carryon for a second time as I went through security again.
Originally Posted by
moondog
My hunch is that --these days-- the liquids ban is implemented partially at the behest of involved airlines (who need to allot for the secondary security).
In my experience, "partially" is the operative word. On the PEK/PVG-U.S. flights that I took this year, the secondary screeners seemed to have checked only one carryon per pax. I've brought back yogurt, procured from the CA lounge, because it was placed in the other bag that the screener did not choose to look into. It's definitely a YMMV situation.