Shanghainese

I guess I join the charmed life beyond the wildest dreams group, I have flown into Shanghai PVG airport for years, last time May 2013, and never had to off-load my luggage onto an X-ray machine.

temppeternh

Quite astonishingly charmed. I've had to put mine through a machine, and so has every single person in line in front of me be they Chinese or foreign, every single time I've arrived on an international flight for more years than I can remember, the last time also earlier this year.

jobin

OP, suggest you enter China from Hong Kong, at LuWo specifically. There, hundreds of thousands cross to and fro daily and the white person is never, in my experience, bothered about anything. And no need to dump luggage onto xray machine, just smile.

JPDeM

@temppeternh - not I have a normal life. I have been through a lot of airports in China and all the major ones that have international flights. And I have done so for 10 years including recently (but not in 2014 yet). Recently flew into China via Guangzhou and Shanghai, same story. The vast majority walk through the nothing to declare door and once in a while, if the custom staff is not about to fall asleep, they will point some passenger to put their luggage through the machine. The exception more than the rule. I just checked with my girlfriend who is Australian (born in China) and it never happened to her either.

kja

I honestly don't remember any scans of luggage in the flight-arrivals section of the airport in Beijing, where I arrived (with serious jet-lag, so what I do/do not remember is worth absolutely nothing!), but I do remember the X-ray machines at the entrance to every metro stop in Beijing that I went through. I could not believe that huge back-ups weren't the norm, but they weren't -- people moved through every stop I visited with incredible ease. I remember wondering if the machines were just for show, if the security staff were paying attention, if the machines were scanning for only a small subset of things that would be very rare.... And I remember thinking that I could not imagine the residents of any major US city putting up with scans at the entrance to their public transportation systems, even after 9/11, no matter how quick the process.

temppeternh

Scans are now also standard at the entrances to many museums, every railway station, and every long-distance bus station.

jobin

Yes, but they are (probably) not scanning for books. And did you ever wonder what they are scanning to find? Consider that every handbag and package must be on the xray belt and this short delay gives the guards time to inspect the PEOPLE going thru the line. If non-Han (maybe Uighur), and non-white, pull over and inspect the package and the person. Certainly racial profiling. And of course all those security folks are now working for the govt = more social harmony. But of course, under your great coat you can carry many hidden items, like Bibles or other contraband.

temppeternh

> Yes, but they are (probably) not scanning for books.

At airports they are scanning for books amongst other things. I've already reported having my case opened and a book checked.

> And did you ever wonder what they are scanning to find?

A very unsurprising list of things actually listed as forbidden at all metro stations and bus stations, for instance: explosives, weapons, inflammables, etc. just as we forbid on our own transport systems. Books are not listed, and nor was that the point of the observation, which was merely that scanning is ubiquitous in China these days.

No one is about to defend the authorities against charges of discrimination against ethnic minorities, but it's hardly to the point here. At museum entrances there are often metal detectors to walk through and sometimes wanding as well as questioning as to whether you are carrying a lighter. So no, there are many cases in which you can't just wander in with anything you like in your pockets although you might well be able to wander through an airport with a forbidden book. But not ten of them.

At museums the purpose is to prevent political demonstrations at high-profile public spots, to prevent violence against staff, and to prevent violence against artworks and theft of them. On public transport the purpose is to prevent deliberate and accidental fires and explosions as have been seen occasionally in the past, instituted both by minorities (who the authorities are indeed quick to blame), by Han with assorted grievances, and by people of all kinds bringing dangerous chemicals onto trains and buses. Overall there's also doubtless an intent to keep a tight clamp on weaponry and its circulation.

In short, there's little out of the ordinary, although much of this does indeed have little to do with the OP's question. However, after passing through customs almost always unsearched (I haven't been searched for more than ten years and then that was at a port in Shanghai having arrived from Japan by ship), there's typically a final x-ray machine before exiting to the arrivals hall, often indifferently monitored, but where a large collection of books in a suitcase might be picked up.

harrybridges

in china they scam travel package, only if they find metal or any other kind of dangerous stuff in the packages, they will search the packages.
If you are unluck, they find something unusual from your behavior, they would also search you