Since a couple years ago, mainland China has ramped up its scheme for tax refunds on purchases at certain large stores. The number of stores doing such service has really increased which is a nice thing.

Just an advice : if your exit from mainland China involves a domestic correspondance before exiting the territory, you have to get the customs stamp and obtain the refund at your final mainland airport. This is similar to the European Union, but involves some planning of the transfering time. If your items are in your checked luggage, you have to reclaim it at your transfer port, go landside to show the items and get the customs stamp, before re-checking the bags and going through the contr�le security all over again. This holds true if you have your goods in your carry-on, less the reclaiming/rechecking bagages- but you still have to go landside.

In my case (SZX - PVG - FRA) , the check in agent could then only check me in/give me the boarding card for the domestic segment, because the checked bags would only be tagged to PVG. A delay on the inbound meant my 3h correspondance at PVG shrank to 2h, which was a bit tight. Luckily priority bagage delivery and recheck (and super-fast luggage delivery) and no queues meant things ended well. But I could see things going awry if not careful.

So plan your transferring accordingly.

What types of products do you buy in China to make the refund drill worthwhile?

Mobile phone, electronics, small household/kitchen appliances. With unique products destined for local market I can't find elsewhere and a favourable FX rate, I haul some stuff home.

Personally it's not a deciding factor but if I can get some money back, I will do it.

Loads of people do the same in the EU; buy stuff here and d�taxe it when bringing it home.

Anything where you want 10% off (12% but the refund people take a commission). High-end stuff is still cheaper elsewhere, but if you want an iPhone with 2 physical SIMs (assuming it can work with your networks back home) then it's not a bad thing to get in China.

Jewelery can also be competitive, assuming that it's not gold you're exporting. You can always negotiate what the shop puts on the invoice and you can figure out what to show customs

My experience: larger airports - no issues with finding the right people. Smaller airports - be prepared to wait - there may be few customs people around so they'll have to call someone to come, and they will not always know how to use the system correctly.

I've also seen that some stores have a refund at the point of purchase (similar to Korea, which makes things VERY easy to get refunds on), which you will need to validate on departure. That seems like the easiest way to do it, but I have not experienced this personally yet.

Also be aware - my experience with refunds is that you'll get cash with no option to get � on Wechat or Alipay.