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Q: Is there a customs limit on how many books you can bring with you into China?
The reason I ask is because my employer has asked to bring some teaching texts of specific books with me when I fly over and he brought up that there may be a customs issue since I'll be bringing around 60-90 books with me. Granted I'm not paying for it, so I don't mind hauling them along with me. But my employer seems to think customs might find it fishy and ask a lot of questions. I told him if that was the case, then I'll bring half of them with me and the other half I'll ship over the day before I leave. But I just wanted to check with you all to see if you thought that it would even be necessary. I've never hear do someone being detained and belongings confiscated for bringing too many books.. But hey, like you all have told me ad nauseum: "This is China." right? 
10 years 16 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
I got stopped and checked for having 1 (one!) book in my carryon luggage. Guess they saw it on the scanner. But, this was when leaving China. The guard pulled the book from my bag, thumbed through it real quick and then put it back. No idea what that was all about. My guess is there will be some questions for you IF you are asked to scan your bag. Rarely do I have to run my bags through the scanner when entering China. Not sure what checks if any are done before the checked luggage comes out on the carousel.
WanderingTeacher:
I'm assuming they scan them when you check a bag right? I've never seen them do it but I would assume they would scan all bags before they put it on a plane. I don't plan on carrying them in my carry on bag.. My long (18hr) flight is going to be treacherous enough to be worrying about the 80 odd books on my person. No, I'm going to put them all in a suitcase all by themselves so in case anything happens and they need to confiscate it or something, at least I'll have the rest of my things, assuming they don't lose my luggage. Lol
Scandinavian:
If it was thumbed through, then they are checking if you have cash hidden in the book.
ScotsAlan:
A mate of mine had a book confiscated coming into China.
He had bought the book in HK and was stopped at the scanner as he entered China at GZ East Rail station. The guards told him it was a banned book. My mate argued in a good mannered way that he had bought the book in HK, and that HK is part of China. They still took it from him.
I always have a book in my carryon. Have yet to have the customs open it.
60-90 books is a completely different thing. Could also be that some airports are more strict than others. If you bring this amount and many of them are the same, then it would be easy for a customs officer to think you're going to sell them. Not sure you are allowed to do so on whatever visa you will have.
WanderingTeacher:
Yeah, that's what I saw on the website. I'm going to call the China embassy here and ask them about it
where are you flying to? if hongkong it wont be a problem , as you dont declare anything for transfer to china, ive brought suitcases of food and books and never been checked. at least 20 times. then the walk through customes to shenzhen dont give a crap what you bring, hell i like to test them and walk riht past the x ray machine, they havent stopped my once. but flying to beijing or shanghai i wouldnt know....... why are you doing that? your employer is a dick, did he pay for it before or promise you to pay after? your gonna wish you used that space and weight for your favorite snacks and toiletries and medicine after about a month, just you wait.
WanderingTeacher:
He's not a dick, he's just trying to come up with a more innovative way to teach the students. And no he's already sent me the money to purchase the books and pay for any fees the airline might charge me for it, so I like I said in my original post, I'm not paying for anything.
your employer should DHL or courier the books.
you would have to pay for the extra weight anyway, so why is your employer putting the obligation on YOU to bring them in ??
WanderingTeacher:
Because he wants to teach his students using American textbooks, as he finds the textbooks that most of the other schools in China use, to be boring. So since he wants American textbooks and I will be the one teaching from them, he wants me to pick out which ones I think is best for each grade level. He has a dream that the majority of his students will all grow up and go to college in America and live great prosperous lives because, they got an American education from an American teacher. I know.. He's reaching, but his heart is in the right place.
sorrel:
i can understand what he wants, but you are in danger of being ****ed over for so many reasons, the least of them being that YOU pay out all the money and your employer will find any and ALL reasons not to pay you back.
I would not even trust my current employer if i was asked to do the same, and i have been here a while
Also your employer should do the research because you don't know what he will/won't like.
Just be careful before you spend your money
boy ive heard of many people who got screwed by their employers as soon as they got to china, but your getting screwed before you even get on the plane! Not a good start hahah
It might help to have a letter, in Chinese, from your employer stating the reason for all the books. However they still might want to tax them. I see this as an import tax issue and I hope that's all it amounts to for you, or even better, I hope it ends up as much ado about nothing. good luck.
WanderingTeacher:
Yeah that's what we discussed last night. I'm going to call the embassy here and ask them about it and was hoping I could get a letter from them in Chinese explaining what I told them the books were for since they just processed my work visa this week and know that I will be working for a school teaching English. Then also get a letter from my employer as well explaining the same thing so then hopefully it will all be ok.
I sometimes buy stuff for work from the UK and get it shipped here. Not books but engineering parts that I can't source here.
It gets stopped by customs on a regular basis, and it can be a real pain sometimes to get it across the border.
Can you not give us the name of the book? Maybe someone can source it here.
Alternatively, just bring one or two copies with you and have it copied when you get here 
In any case, I suspect your employer will be making a few bucks from selling the books. Hope your getting a cut for your efforts 
WanderingTeacher:
Yes making copies is the plan once I get there..but there are about 5-8 books per grade level, there are 10 grade levels. I'm only getting one copy of these books, but that still brings the total number that I need to about 70ish.
ScotsAlan:
Wow. That's a lot.
Personally I would post them. But not in one big box. I would post them in packages of 5 or so. And I would also send them to different addresses.
