What can I bring into China: medicine, cash, food, a drone, a laptop with a VPN?

China Customs' baggage rules, in force since 1 April 2025, say what you bring must be for reasonable personal use; anything beyond that is handled as goods. If you have nothing to declare, walk through the green channel. If you have something on the list below, fill in the declaration form and use the red channel. You can fill it in ahead of time in the "海关进出境人员指尖服务" (China Customs passenger service) mini-program in WeChat or Alipay, then confirm it at the customs desk.

On entry you must declare: prohibited items; restricted items over the limit or that need a licence; animals, plants and their products; blood, tissue, pathogens and biological products; items contaminated by or at risk of spreading a quarantinable disease; cash over the limit; goods over the duty-free allowance; commercial goods, samples or advertising material; baggage shipped separately; and anything else that by law needs a written declaration. Things you bring in only temporarily and will take out again may also need a written temporary-entry declaration; the form has a box for them.

Cash: each person may carry at most ¥20,000 in Chinese yuan in or out per trip. Foreign cash over the equivalent of US$5,000 must be declared in writing when you arrive; if you cross several times in one day or within 15 days, declare any foreign cash. More on paying in cash in China.

Duty-free allowances on the official declaration form: a non-resident visitor may bring in up to ¥2,000 worth of items to be left in China. Tobacco: 400 cigarettes (including heated tobacco), or 20 cigars, or 500 g of loose tobacco, plus up to 2 e-cigarette devices and 6 pods or disposables holding no more than 12 ml of liquid in total. Alcohol: 1.5 litres of drinks over 12% ABV. Arrivals from Hong Kong or Macao get half these tobacco and alcohol amounts, Under-18s get no tobacco or alcohol allowance and only travel necessities duty-free. If you enter more than once within 15 days, say after a Hong Kong side trip, you count as a frequent traveller (经常出入境人员): only travel necessities are duty-free, tobacco drops to 40 cigarettes and no alcohol is duty-free.

Food is where most people get caught. The Ministry of Agriculture and Customs list of items banned from being carried or posted into China includes meat and meat products, raw or cooked; milk and dairy, including cheese, butter and cream; eggs and egg products, including mayonnaise; fresh fruit and vegetables; bird's nest unless commercially sterilised in a can; seeds and live plant material; soil; live animals other than pet cats and dogs; animal-derived traditional medicines; fresh cut flowers; and tobacco leaf. Aquatic products are banned except dried, cooked or fermented sauces made from them.

Medicine: the Drug Import Administration Measures, co-issued with Customs, say medicines you carry for yourself must stay within a reasonable personal quantity and are subject to customs supervision. They set no fixed number of packs. Keep your prescription and the original packaging. Narcotic and Category I psychotropic medicines are stricter: under the State Council regulation on these drugs, you may carry no more than the maximum dose of a single prescription, with a diagnosis document from a medical institution and your ID, and customs releases them on a reasonable-personal-use basis. Opium, morphine, heroin, cannabis and other addictive narcotics or psychotropic substances are on the list of items banned from entry.

Drones: we found no customs rule that names drones. The following are national registration and flight rules; Beijing also restricts bringing drones in, as explained below. China's drone regulations require every civil drone to be registered under its owner's real name on the CAAC's UOM platform before use; flying an unregistered drone gets a police order to correct and a fine of up to ¥200, or ¥2,000 to ¥20,000 in serious cases. A mandatory national standard from 1 May 2026 requires new drones to be registered before they can be activated to fly, with a 12-month transition for drones already sold; the CAAC's explanation does not say how it applies to a drone bought abroad. The regulations also bar drones operated by foreigners from surveying, mapping or radio-testing flights in China. We could not confirm whether a foreign visitor can complete UOM registration with a passport, so check before you pack one.

Beijing: from 15 November 2026, the revised Beijing drone regulations designate the whole municipality as controlled airspace and ban drone flights, possession or storage of drones and their core components, and transporting or carrying them into Beijing. The exceptions cover counter-terrorism and public-security work, emergency response, major events, teaching, research, production, and agriculture or forestry; they require a safety assessment by Beijing police together with the relevant authorities. These are not tourist exemptions. Illegal flying leads to confiscation and a ¥1,000–¥10,000 fine; for individuals, illegal possession, storage or bringing a drone or its core components into Beijing leads to confiscation and may also carry a ¥500–¥5,000 fine. Don't pack a drone for a Beijing visit: the police's April 2026 guidance already tells visitors not to bring one, including on journeys connecting in or passing through Beijing. The revised law itself sets out no separate tourist or transit exemption.

Laptops, phones and cameras you bring for your own use, in reasonable numbers, fall under the baggage rules' reasonable-personal-use test like any other personal item. Customs may inspect any baggage, using equipment, tools or dogs. The list of items banned from entry includes printed matter, film, photos, discs, computer storage media and other items whose content is harmful to China's politics, economy, culture or morals. We found no customs rule that mentions VPN software on a traveller's device. For using a VPN in China, see VPNs for a China trip.

Radio transmitters and receivers are on the restricted list, so walkie-talkies and similar kit may need a declaration.