Iphone to China
 

How many Iphone can I bring to China? I have three Iphone, one for personal use, and two as a gift. I heard there is a limit of Iphone you can bring to China.

If you can remove one of the gift phones from its box, you'll be in a much better position. Customs inspections on foreigners are very rare, but I wouldn't want to roll those dice.

There is no quota on iphones.

The duty depends on the value of the items and
which are for personal use.

So they do not inspected you if you are a foreigner?

The fact presented on this post and by others on this forum is that custom inspection for non-Chinese nationals are rare.
BUT
WE ARE NOT SAYING THAT IT DOES NOT HAPPEN.

It's been reported by some that if you volunteer to pay duty on the iphones, if there are very few (as in your case, i.e. 2 new), they may just wave you through. At worst, they tax you on those 2 -- which increases the cost by 10-20% I guess.

The chance of being stopped is low, but if it occurs, you run the risk of confiscation.

tb

As stated, there is a possibility of being stopped going through Customs. Of all the trips I have made between HKG-PEK, I have been asked four times to put my luggage through the scanner and one of those times, a full baggage inspection.

Just a guess, they look for passengers from HKG/SEL for shopping trip junkets. I came trough SEL a couple of months back and saw lots of LV, Gucci ect boxes near the garbage cans at the airport.

So the limit of Iphone you can bring is one? Also, does Ipad and Itouch count?

I've had bags through the x-ray once and it was an unusual situation--4 bags, I was apparently alone. That drew the eye of the inspector and my entry two days earlier peaked his interest. When my wife caught up and explained the situation (the airline had left our luggage behind, we were only now getting it) that was the end of it.

Although they could, in theory, force you to pay duty on your personal use electronics (to be refunded upon departure), that's not the way things work in practice. The same goes for gifts; CBP agents like iPhones just as much as you do, and wouldn't want to shatter the dreams of your recipient. But, the more "gifts" you bring in, the closer you get yourself to being suspected as a taobao seller.

Depends on whether the personal articles are intended to remain in China.
There is an exemption for non-Chinese residents of 2000 rmb.

If above that, a declaration form must be filled out and duty levied.

Your questions seems to be more like..How much can I smuggle in without getting busted?

Considering electronics are the most pilfered articles in check in baggage and no one
would take that risk. The answer would be how many iphones can you cram into
a carry on bag?

In the past 3 years, I've had about 30+ crossings into China and never been checked once. That being said, YMMV.

iPhone 6
 

Smugglers making a killing off the iPhone 6

Apple faithfuls line up for the new iPhone 6 outside an Apple store in Pasadena, California on Sept. 19.
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/newsph..._N71_copy2.JPG


The Beijing Youth Daily says that grey market iPhone 6s have already reached China, with the 16GB iPhone 6 selling from around 13,000-14,000 yuan (US$2,115-US$2,280) and the 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus selling up to 20,000 yuan (US$3,255) at the Zhongguancun technology hub in Beijing.

Worry not; these prices have been falling at 20%/day because there is a great deal of supply this time around.

What's the current price?

Chain stores in Hong Kong have 6s in stock for hkd10k for the 128gb model

Anything over 2000RMB that will stay in China needs to be declared.
http://shanghai.customs.gov.cn/Default.aspx?tabid=5674

Two boxed units/person seems to be the de facto tolerance, at least in Shenzhen. Customs at Shenzhen Bay has been extremely slow this week because of the iPhone 6, but they aren't messing with small the two-unit crowd.

I never got anything confiscated (over land from HK and Macau) In the few cases I got checked I had to decide whether to pay the duty or carry it back.
They do keep records though and know exactly about any past incident.

In my experience large baggage *always* goes through the xray when taking the land border crossings from HK into China. But flying into Pudong or BJ airports - never once have I been asked to xray my bags.

One x-ray in Shanghai, I don't recall if it was PuDong or not.

There were special circumstances involved, though--in the eyes of the customs official I was wheeling out more luggage than normal which caught his eye. Then the fact that my entry stamp was two days earlier drew more attention.

At that point my wife caught up (I had finally started walking to get her to quit talking to the baggage people forever) and explained that the airline left our bags behind, we were just picking them up now. (She's a native speaker, I speak a couple of dozen words with a bad enough accent that people likely won't understand me so I left the explanation to her.) End of inspection.

Usually they don't look no matter what. There's a nuke alarm there, my wife tripped it and nobody responded. After waiting a bit to see if anyone was going to give us directions we finally went on out. (While there was a second detector that actually was manned it's before the formalities and thus doesn't scan your checked baggage. Even there they didn't do the elementary test of separating her from her carry-ons and sweeping a geiger counter over her to see if the source was dispersed {leftover from medical imaging} or a point source. They simply accepted her word that it was from a heart scan despite having left the card from the lab behind.)

there are x-rays at PVG which are used from time to time.

Sometimes it is just used for individuals, sometimes everyone has to go through them (the latter is rare).

I think last time we were subjected to 'everyone' they were looking for baby formula.

But they are cracking down on iPhones: http://www.ecns.cn/2014/09-25/136058.shtml

That has always been the case.

Crack down on inbound smuggling until the availability in China is normal.

There are a lot of Asian wealth from arbitraging price differential with anything and everything.

I guess if you can repatriate refugees, currency, human remains, cultural items, battlefield caualties.. you can surely repatriate an iPhone.

Not trying to be funny but with family roots spanning HK, Chinese Village and North of the Bay area we did bones shipment from US to China during the late Qing dynasty (19th century).

That definately fits the definition of returning to the country of origin.

The joke among Chinese migrant worker in US during the 19th century was "The only way they let you stay is if you die". It was also the wish of all that they be buried at ancestry site back in China

They were buried in US for seven years. After that the bones were exhumed, boxed and shipped back to relatives in China via HK.

Hope you understand.

H. RES. 683

That the House of Representatives regrets the passage of legislation that adversely affected people of Chinese origin in the United States because of their ethnicity.

Nothing in this resolution may be construed or relied on to authorize or support any claim, including but not limited to constitutionally based claims, claims for monetary compensation or claims for equitable relief against the United States or any other party, or serve as a settlement of any claim against the United States.

No hard feelings