Can foreigners buy Hainan duty free?
Yes. The Announcement on the Hainan Offshore Duty-Free Shopping Policy, No. 33 of 2020, issued by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Taxation Administration (dated 2020-06-29, in force 2020-07-01), defines the traveller in article 2. You have bought a ticket to leave the island and you hold valid ID. For foreign travellers the notice says that ID is a passport (国外旅客持护照).
The catch is the ticket. This is not a shop-and-carry-home scheme. You buy in a duty-free store, then leave Hainan. The standard way is to collect the goods at the airport, station or port as you leave; the other pick-up methods are below. Since 2025-11-01 "leave" can also mean leaving China straight from Hainan, but the rules for that group are tighter.
Do I have to leave Hainan? Flying to another Chinese city vs flying out of China
The notices describe two kinds of traveller. Do not mix them up, because pick-up and gold rules differ.
| Leave Hainan, stay in China (离岛不离境) | Leave Hainan and leave China (离岛且离境) | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | Sanya to Guangzhou by plane | Sanya to Singapore by plane |
| Ticket | Air, train or ship ticket off the main island | Air or sea ticket out of Hainan, and you actually leave China |
| Documents | Foreign travellers: passport | "Valid entry-exit document" (进出境有效证件); the notice does not list documents by nationality |
| Age | 18 or over | 18 or over |
| In force | 2020-07-01 (No. 33 of 2020) | 2025-11-01 (No. 9 of 2025) |
| Pick-up | Airport, railway station or port area; mail delivery; on-the-spot options (see below) | Airport or port area only |
| Gold and silver | Can be bought | Cannot be bought |
Before 2025-11-01 the 2020 notice excluded people leaving the country (不包括离境). So if you read an older guide that says you must stay in China to use duty free, it was right then and is out of date now. The Announcement on Adjusting the Hainan Offshore Duty-Free Shopping Policy, No. 9 of 2025 (dated 2025-10-15, in force 2025-11-01), names "domestic and foreign travellers" in the leave-China group, Hainan residents included.
If you fly on to another mainland city, you also need your own right to enter and stay there. That is a visa question, and the Hainan visa-free page is the place for it.
Hainan duty free limits: age, ¥100,000 and items per category
- Age. 18 or over from 2025-11-01. The 2020 notice said 16 and the 2025 notice replaces it (Announcement No. 9 of 2025, article 3).
- Money. ¥100,000 per person per year, with no limit on the number of purchases (No. 33 of 2020, article 3). Purchases by travellers who leave China count toward the same ¥100,000.
- Over the limit. The part over the allowance or over the quantity limit pays import tax at the normal rate.
- One occasion. Buying and then leaving the island by plane, train or ship counts as one duty-free shopping occasion. The per-category numbers below are "per person per occasion" (每人每次).
The annex to Announcement No. 9 of 2025 lists 47 categories. Most are 不限 (no limit), including watches, perfume, bags, shoes, clothing, tea, coffee and tablets. These are the ones with a cap:
| Category | Limit per person per occasion |
|---|---|
| Cosmetics (化妆品) | 30 items |
| Mobile phones (手机) | 4 items |
| Consumer electronics (电子消费产品) | No limit, except micro drones with a maximum take-off weight of 250 g or less: 2 items |
| Alcohol: beer, wine, sake, spirits, fermented drinks (酒类) | 1,500 ml in total |
The annex counts "one item" as one complete package with its own price tag. A set counts as the number of items inside it.
Gold and silver
Jewellery (首饰) has no quantity limit, but the annex remark says gold, silver and other precious metals and their products are only for travellers who leave the island but not China. If you fly from Hainan out of China, you can't buy them under this scheme.
How do I get the goods: airport, port, mail or on the spot?
It depends on which group you are in.
If you leave Hainan and leave China
You collect only at the designated pick-up area at the airport or port (仅能在机场、港口码头指定区域提货), with your shopping receipt, and carry everything off the island in one go. The store delivers the goods according to your departure time. Announcement No. 9 of 2025 does not mention mail delivery or on-the-spot pick-up for this group, so don't plan on either.
If you leave Hainan and stay in China
- Pick-up area. The designated area at the airport, railway station or port. You carry the goods off the island in one go (No. 33 of 2020, article 5).
- Mail. Allowed under the Announcement on Adding Pick-Up Methods for Hainan Offshore Duty-Free Shopping, No. 2 of 2021 (dated 2021-02-02). The recipient, payer and buyer must all be you, and the delivery address must be outside Hainan. The store ships after you have actually left.
- On the spot. Since 2023-04-01, the Announcement on Adding ‘Guarantee Pick-Up’ and ‘Immediate Pick-Up’ Methods for Hainan Offshore Duty-Free Shopping, No. 25 of 2023 (dated 2023-03-18) adds two methods, in-store only. 即购即提 lets you take items on the spot if they cost under ¥20,000 per unit, are on the notice's list, and stay within the per-category limit. 担保即提 is for items of ¥50,000 or more per unit: you lodge a guarantee equal to the import tax with customs and take the item, but you may not use it on the island. When you leave, you ask customs to check the unused item; once it passes and you have left, the guarantee is returned. If you have not left within 30 days of buying, or you do not ask for the check, or the item fails it, the guarantee becomes tax.
- The 30-day rule. With those two methods you must leave the island within 30 days of buying; if you don't and can't give a good reason, you can't buy duty-free goods for three years.
Which items qualify for on-the-spot pick-up is set by a list attached to the 2023 notice. We can't confirm which items are on that list, so ask the store before you count on it.
Sanya International Duty Free City: address, opening hours and what to bring
China Duty Free Group's store page for Sanya International Duty Free City (三亚国际免税城) lists the address as Haitang North Road No. 118 (海棠北路118号), Haitang Bay, Sanya. Hours are listed as 10:00-22:00 and the phone number as (0898) 96656. The page has no date, its images date from 2021, and it still says "45 categories" where the 2025 notice has 47. Treat the hours as a guide, not a promise. The page says nothing about holiday hours.
The page says the city is about 30 minutes by car from Sanya's urban area. The Sanya travel guide covers getting around.
For what to bring, go by the notices:
- Your passport. The 2020 notice names it for foreign travellers.
- Your ticket out of Hainan. The notices define the traveller as someone who has already bought one.
- Your shopping receipt, which you show at the pick-up area.
Sanya's is one of 12 duty-free stores island-wide, run by 6 operators, according to Xinhua on 2026-04-21. Xinhua also says Sanya International Duty Free City is the only duty-free shop in China rated a 4A scenic area. The 2020 notice named four stores (Haikou Meilan Airport, Haikou Riyue Plaza, Qionghai Boao and Sanya Haitang Bay). That list is out of date, so don't use it as the current line-up.
Did anything change after full-island customs operations began on 2025-12-18?
Xinhua's 2026-04-21 report says that since Hainan Free Trade Port began full island-wide customs operations on 2025-12-18, purchases under the duty-free policy by departing travellers (离境旅客) have reached ¥67.717 million. It also says more foreign visitors are choosing to shop in Hainan.
We found no later notice changing the allowance, the age limit or the pick-up rules. The documents that govern today are No. 33 of 2020, No. 2 of 2021, No. 25 of 2023 and No. 9 of 2025, and the last of these says everything else continues under No. 33 of 2020. That is what we found; it does not rule out a later change.
Can I buy for friends or resell? No
The goods are for your own use and may not go back on the domestic market. People who resell, buy on behalf of others (代购) or smuggle goods are put on a credit record and barred from duty-free purchases for three years (No. 33 of 2020, articles 6 and 7).
Is Hainan duty free the same as the tourist tax refund?
No. Hainan duty free means buying goods tax-free in a duty-free shop under the notices above. The departure tax refund for overseas visitors is a separate scheme, covered on the tourist tax refund page.
What the notices don't say
- Hong Kong and Macau. The 2025 notice says 离境 and "valid entry-exit document" and does not name Hong Kong or Macau, so we can't say whether a flight from Sanya to either counts. A flight to a place like Singapore is plainly leaving China.
- How late you can buy. The notices give no time window before departure. The only time limit is the 30 days for the two 2023 methods.
- Registration steps. We found no official page describing what you do at the shop counter, so we haven't described it.
