border control

[lennio]

hello,

got a question about the control at the chinese border. will they control notebooks and or DV discs and or DVDs?

[lennio]

i need an answer as soon as possible.

[dustyone]

I went to chongqing in march and they looked at my laptop did not turn in on
just looked at the case and around the edges. I brought back some dvd's in my suit case and no one said a word about it.

[lennio]

thanks a lot. i think searching the laptop would be too much trouble for them anyway.
how many dvds did you bring back? will they also control their content when they think its suspiscious?

[dustyone]

I returned with 20 dvd's I put them in my suit case and just let it go through the airline. I was carefull what I put in my carry on bag but no one even looked at it. they did glance at the laptop to be sure it had not been apart but that was it. I do not think anyone even looked in my checked bags.

[csun213]

hello,

got a question about the control at the chinese border. will they control notebooks and or DV discs and or DVDs?

No, usually you don't even stop. Just put your bags through the X-ray machine and pick up on the other side then keep walking. Do not act scared, just normal.

[mariogilzer]

I enter china every week ..I entered china from hong kong, shanghai airport and even in a train from Kasachstan to wulurumqi! I was never controlled! not even asked anything!

[siaopao]

Just came back from China last week (thru Beijing). They checked my luggage and I bought about 100 DVDs. No issue at all. No issue to with my notebook

Note: I bought HK/Chinese DVD. I heard stories that ppl get busted when they came back from China and brought western (hollywood) pirated DVD.

Have fun

[tiger888]

If you are worried, get yourselves a large harddisk and make images, burn them back home. You can even put the images into encrypted containers.
There are even encryption programs where you got 2 passwords. One for the real content and another one for the one you want to show. (Check out drivecrypt)
Tiger

[godofaccu]

Last time I was in China, the DVD store owner in Shenzhen told me the foolproof wayw as to buy a DVD/CD wallet/case and just stuff all the movies in there. Basically, if you make it seem like it's your (possibly old) collection, they won't sweat you. Ideally, they want to stop you if you look like you are going to resell in whatever your home country is. Only problem is, you lose all your DVD cases, and inserts. On the way home though, I didn't get searched at all with 50+ DVDs in my case.

That harddrive idea sounds good too, though I wonder if the airport scanning equipment would mess with it.

[tiger888]

If any airport scanner would mess it I should lose my data multiple times per year. The danger of losing the DVDs it is almost zero on exiting China(as long as it is not porn) , but significantly high on entering your home country. If you e.G. enter Germany right now from any listed coutry like Turkey, Thailand, China... all your luggage gets searched for food because of the chicken flu (Other finds also welcome.)

Tiger