Zhejiang Province, an economic powerhouse and a popular tourist destination in east China, has implemented tax refund policies for overseas shoppers exiting the Chinese border by opening over 160 tax-free shops as the inbound tourism market continued to heat up.

The policy targets residents of Hong Kong, Macao and the Taiwan region as well as foreign nationals and the value-added tax, or VAT, refund on consumer goods is an effective 11 or 8 percent of total invoiced amount.
From January 1 to March 19, 2024, the province received 461,000 inbound arrivals via the provincial capital city of Hangzhou, up 3.3 times year on year, according to the Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.
Located in the heart of Shaoxing City and close to the Lu Xun Museum, the Xianheng Hotel is one of the province's 163 departure tax refund stores. Naranj Jan, a Pakistani businessman, walked to the luxurious 4-star hotel's store to buy some souvenirs for his family from Chinese tea to dolls.
"I buy many things. I like usually Chinese green tea and also I buy historical things. My kids and our family like Chinese green tea and usually Chinese things. So when I will go back to my country, so I will apply for tax refund. This will be more cheap everything for me," said Naranj Jan.
Meanwhile, Zhejiang has opened 14 in-store tax refund shops since last September, allowing overseas consumers to immediately claim VAT refunds for tax refundable goods purchased there.
"Located in the hometown of Lu Xun (Chinese writer), the Xianheng Hotel is a popular destination for overseas tourists so we selected it into the first batch of departure tax refund stores, a move to make it easy for overseas tourists to buy and introduce our local enterprises and specialty products to the rest of the world," said Qian Guobin, a tax officer.
Since 2024, Zhejiang's departure tax refund stores have sold 15.22 million yuan (about 2.1 million U.S. dollars) of tax refundable goods that enjoyed a tax refund of 1.117 million yuan.