I am traveling to Beijing with a tour group in the near future, and have a question about bringing electronics into China. Unfortunately, eventhough I am on vacation, I need to bring my laptop and Blackberry with me to stay on top of work. My video iPod is also a required accessory. The representative from the tour company indicated that if you bring electronics such as these into China they will be confiscated. I find this very difficult (impossible) to believe having traveled extensively all over the world with my laptop and Blackberry in tow, and never having an issue. This is my first organized tour experience, and I suspect this is a case of the company not wanting any liability in the event that something would happen to these items. Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

That's the biggest BS I've ever heard! If your tour company is that naive then perhaps you should go with someone else. Tell them to take a look at the back of all those electronics equipments and most likely it's made in China!

Trust tour companies to provide unreliable information.

You can take with you enough electronics to stock a shop and as long as you are taking it out again no one could care less. You are not obliged to declare these things on entry, and nor is your baggage checked.

GPS, laptop, mobile phone, iPod, etc: take whatever you need.

Peter N-H

my guess is that they do not want the extra baggage and resposibility of them....like leaving them on the bus or in your room while you are out....

Thank you for all of the quick responses - as I suspected, I did not receive entirely accurate information on this (and several other) topics. Thanks again!!

Would you let us know which tour co. this is that feeds garbage to its clients?

I go for work and just came back from a trip..I bring my Ipod Nano, Speakers for it, Laptop, headset for Skype and mobile phones one chinese one Irish...No one looks at me twice...its all allowed otherwise we could not do work in China. Very off they tell you this though. Maybe its a misunderstanding?

I find it disappointing that the OP has failed to offer documentation as to the "tour company" (representative) which offered this "information."

This makes me wonder if the OP wasn't paying attention, misheard, doesn't care about anyone else's needs, or actually mis-represented what was said.

This did happen to me 10 years ago, so no recent experience.

I was doing a presentation in Guangzhou and I was carrying a laptop and projector. At customs, I had to pay a 1500 yuan deposit for the projector, they took the serial number etc and a receipt. They had a list of products that required a deposit.

On departing, much to my surprise I got the deposit back and they were pretty thorough in checking that it was the same projector that was leaving. The laptop was not an issue.

Geordie

You probably need to worry more about bringing those items back into the States without documentation than worry about taking them into China.

I just came back from China on the 14th of June 2012. Although the Chinese do check your luggage I had no problem taking my Laptop, IPad, 2 Iphones and a few other odds and ends. I also left all of the items there with my Chinese fiance when I returned to Germany. The only thing I brought back with me was my Iphone. No problems at all. The only thing the Chinese seemed really tough on were cigarette lighters and anything liquid you had in your carry on luggage.

Forgot to mention that I am returning to China on the 31st of August 2012 and will be taking some things with me that I needed on the last trip but could not buy in China such as a meat grinder and mixer. You should also find a new travel agent. If they can't even give you a correct answer regarding your laptop I wonder how many more mistakes they will make.

Steve, you seem to have missed the fact that you are replying to a post that is more than 4 years old.

Steve: Did you check City Shop for meat grinder & mixer? They deliver although products are pricey. Also check online to see if any expat may be selling one.

Lots of Chinese smoke but lighters are prohibited in carry on luggage altho US airports didn't have issues with them on departure flights.