DHL Express Import Guidelines: China, People's Republic

Shipping guidelines, standard prohibitions and restrictions to consider when sending express shipments to China, People's Republic.

Prohibited Commodities for China, People's Republic

The following commodities are not acceptable for transport by DHL under any circumstances.
This is a result of a policy decision, following the full consideration of Operational, Legal and Risk Management implications.

Animals, fish birds (live)
Banderols or tax stickers
Bullion (of any precious metal)
"Cash like" negotiable instruments in bearer form
Complete firearms, ammunition, explosives and weapons
Human remains or ashes
Illegal goods
Imitation (replica) firearms, weapons, explosive devices or ammunition

Property, the carriage of which is prohibited by any law, regulation or statute of any federal, state or local government of any country to or through which the shipment may be carried.

(local list of commodities)

Weapons, emulational Weapons, ammunition and explosives
Faked currency and securities
Extremism propaganda materials
Poisons
Drugs/narcotics
Infectious animals/plants and its product

Counterfeit Goods are Prohibited

DHL's security policy states that it is not allowed to transport counterfeit goods via the DHL network. DHL does not want to be associated with counterfeit goods and upon suspicion of such goods being imported, Customs will be informed. It is prohibited in many countries to introduce counterfeit goods and where proven the Customs authority will seize the goods and penalize the buyer.

If you are offered very low prices for branded goods that are sold on shopping websites or via other channels, you can normally assume that the goods are counterfeit. High quality branded goods that are often copied are:

Shoes
Clothing
Bags
Expensive Watches
CDs and DVDs
Perfumes
Electronics

Shipping Commodities – What You Need to Know

Certain commodities are considered as “Non-Document” and need to be accompanied by an invoice and, in some cases, additional customs documentation. Other commodities are considered simply as a “Document” and only require a DHL Waybill to be completed. The following list explains what you need to do in order to ship various commodities.

Document Commodities (Require only DHL Waybill)

Advertising brochures/pamphlets
Airline tickets, blank stock (NI)
Airline tickets, issued/validated
Annual reports
Blank forms
Blueprints
Booklets, brochures (non-adv.)
Books: hardbk/paperbk non-comm. use
Business cards
Cash letters (NI)
Catalogues
Charts/graphs
Cheques, cancelled (NI)
Cheques, cashier (NI)
Computer printouts
Credit card blanks (NI)
Credit cards (NI)
Deeds
Documents, general business
Invoices, not blank
Manuals, technical
Manuscripts
Money orders (NI)
Music, printed or manuscript
Pamphlets
Passports
Photographs
Photos as part of business reports
Plans/drawings-arch/indust/eng. pur
Price lists
Publication not for public resale
Ship manifest-computer generated
Shipping schedules
Visa applications

Commodities where you should contact your local Customer Service advisor to clarify shipping requirements

Alcoholic beverages
Communications equipment
Compact disc
Computer components & parts
Cosmetics
Diplomatic mail
Diskettes
Drugs: non-prescription
Drugs: prescription
Foodstuffs
Grain samples
Parts, machine & electronic
Personal effects
Plants
Seeds
Ship spares
Tobacco

All other commodities are Non-Document in nature and should be accompanied by a DHL Waybill and an Invoice.

Worldwide Express Import Guidelines

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