South China's Hainan Province has taken steps to ensure the smooth opening and expansion of the duty-free shops for local residents that will offer daily consumer goods.
Hainan has long offered duty-free purchases for tourists who could present an exit ticket. Now that the province has implemented island-wide special customs operations, residents will now be able to benefit as well.
The first batch of daily consumer goods duty-free shops for island residents is scheduled to open on Feb. 11, 2026, according to a press conference on Friday.
Following a comprehensive assessment of factors such as population size, consumption habits, commercial infrastructure and transport connectivity, authorities designated the locations of the first five shops, with three in Haikou, one in Sanya, and one in Danzhou.
Eligible residents include Chinese citizens with a Hainan identity card, a local residence permit, or a local social security card, as well as overseas personnel who work and live in Hainan and hold valid residence permits.
Each eligible resident is granted an annual duty-free shopping quota of 10,000 yuan (about 1,437 U.S. dollars), with no limit on the number of purchases. The policy covers daily necessities, including specified food and beverages, daily chemical products, household goods, and maternal and child supplies.
People in Hainan said the newly opened shops and relevant facilitation policies will help them save on many of their expenses.
"This [duty-free] policy is quite convenient, covering many different types of daily necessities. We can even buy things without a plane ticket, which was something we never expected before. So it feels like the island-wide special customs operations has brought us a lot of convenience," said a resident in Danzhou.
To ensure the policies are implemented as quickly as possible, Haikou Customs has established a smart supervision system supported by cutting-edge information technology and has conducted policy briefings and guidance for companies interested in the daily consumer goods business.
"In the sales process, various information technologies will be comprehensively utilized to achieve compliant surveillance of shopping qualifications, tax-free allowances, and other systems, striving to improve both regulatory efficiency and consumer convenience," Cao Ming, deputy chief of Haikou Customs, said at the press conference.
As of 2024, there were over 700,000 migrant workers from other regions in Hainan. On residence permit eligibility, an official from the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department said that among the floating population, those who have resided in their place of residence for more than six months and meet one of the following conditions -- legal and stable employment, legal and stable residence, or legal enrollment in school -- can apply for a residence permit within the administrative region of Hainan Province.
"If the police station is equipped with certificate-making facilities, the certificate can be made and processed on the spot; if it is not equipped with such facilities, we promise to complete the process within five working days," said Lin Xiong, an officer at the Hainan Provincial Public Security Department.
Hainan prepares smooth opening of duty-free shops for local residents
