Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
There is no ‘pat down’ of the whole body. The manual search is conducted by an electronic wand (hand held metal detector). It doesn’t touch your body. It is however susper sensitive... it picks up those metal press studs than can be on jeans or pants pockets, or zippers, or a necklace.
The security officer will just look to confirm it is a zipper or press stud, or belt buckle. You will see almost every passenger before you undergo the search, so you will be able to see it is completely non invasive. Nothing like a TSA ‘pat down’.
If you did not have good reason for a private search, i would suggest you would win no favours from either the security personnel or the passengers standing behind you in the queue. You would be turning a ‘nothing’ into a ‘something’.
If it is something that you know they will find, like a prosthetic limb or metal implant, then you might want to let them know before the screening,
The above was NOT my experience in either PVG in October or PEK two weeks ago.
In both cases, it was a young female agent who wanded me, but also certainly felt my arms and legs quickly. I would say 15 seconds is about right, but if you expect not to be touched at all, stay out of China.
YMMV