Tourists select cosmetics at Sanya Haitang Bay International Shopping Mall. [Photo by Huang Yiming / China Daily] |
Hainan allows non-locals to make duty-free purchases twice a year before taking flights to leave the island, each capped at 8,000 yuan ($1,235). That amount is expected to double, said Luo Baoming, secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The island province will also promote online duty-free shopping while allowing those who leave the island by train to enjoy duty exemption, Luo said.
The State Council, China's cabinet, gave Hainan permission to run a trial duty-free program in April 2011 in an effort to make the island a world-class tourist destination and to lure back luxury shoppers in order to buoy domestic consumption.
Hainan has two duty-free shops, with one in the provincial capital of Haikou and the other, the world's largest such shop, in the resort city of Sanya.