The customs authorities in China's island province of Hainan have planned to optimize regulatory measures to boost duty-free shopping in 2025.
Known for its beautiful beaches and thriving duty-free shopping, Hainan is one of popular tourist resorts in China.
According to the Haikou Customs, duty-free spending during the New Year Day holiday this year totaled 130 million yuan (about 17.75 U.S. dollars), as major retailers launched a series of promotions to stimulate duty-free shopping to kickstart 2025.
The Haikou Customs rolled out measures including online postal tax payments to facilitate duty-free shopping. They also reached out to enterprises in advance to understand their demands, improved staffing, especially in holidays, and used technologies to ensure smooth operations.
"The Haikou Customs will keep streamline the regulatory process for offshore duty-free shopping, use information technology for better supervision, focus more on intelligent management and excellent service, and promote institutional innovation, so as to improve trade facilitation and foster a sound business environment for offshore duty-free operations," said Xie Dongliang, head of the duty-free and express mail management section at the Haikou Customs.
Haikou recorded total duty-free sales of 30.94 billion yuan (about 4 billion U.S. dollars) throughout the year 2024, according to the Haikou Customs.
Hainan Customs optimizes measures to boost duty-free shopping
Hainan Customs optimizes measures to boost duty-free shopping
As the 2025 Spring Festival approaches, food markets in several cities across the country are experiencing a shopping spree, with consumers flocking to snap up festive goods.
The Red Star agricultural products wholesale market in Changsha City of central China's Hunan Province offers fruits, fresh produce and other agricultural and sideline products from 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities as well as 21 countries and regions around the world. The market has recently seen a surge in sales volume.
"Since the New Year's Day, our sales volume has surged. For instance, yesterday we got eight trucks, and the volume will continue to grow," said Zhang Zhibin, a vendor at the market.
Statistics showed that, since the beginning of 2025, the Red Star market has seen a daily fruit trading volume of 12,000 tons, peaking at 20,000 tons. Vegetable trading averaged 5,000 tons per day, with peaks reaching 8,000 tons.
Zhoushan International Aquatic City, a major shopping center for aquatic products in Zhoushan City of east China's Zhejiang province, is also seeing a sales boom, with seafood orders increasing both online and offline.
Despite rising trade prices for some products, market demand remains strong.
"Currently, we purchase over 5,000 kilograms of goods daily, and then sell them to Wenzhou, Fujian, and Ningbo. The market [prices] are roughly in line with previous years, and the demand is high. Sometimes I got more than 100 orders a day," said Yang Yihua, a vendor at the aquatic city.
China's Spring Festival market buzzes as holiday approaches
