Shenzhen handled a growing number of departure tax refund applications during the May Day holiday, as new smart customs services helped overseas travelers complete refund procedures more quickly and conveniently.

According to Shenzhen Customs, 2,647 departure tax refund applications were verified during the holiday, involving 30.36 million yuan worth of goods, up 94.4% year on year. Domestically made digital products, clothing and bags, as well as jewelry were among the most popular purchases among foreign travelers.

At Luohu Port, some travelers said the process was faster than expected despite the holiday rush. A traveler from the Republic of Korea, who had purchased a foldable smartphone and a drone, said he had come early out of concern over possible queues, but completed the procedure quickly.

The improvement was supported by a smart supervision model promoted by Shenzhen Customs. Under the model, tax refund goods and related documents are sealed together in a dedicated package when travelers make purchases. During customs checks, officers only need to verify the documents and the integrity of the package, reducing the verification time for a single application to about two minutes.

During the holiday, China's first batch of full-scenario self-service departure tax refund machines were also put into use at Luohu Port and Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. The machines support interfaces in 13 languages and allow travelers to complete identity verification, document scanning and refund collection on their own.

The machines support multiple refund methods, including cash, bank cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay. Shenzhen also pioneered the use of digital yuan wallets for tax refunds. At Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, a traveler from Russia used the Russian-language interface and received the refund in a digital yuan hard wallet in less than three minutes.

Chen Yunhui, an official with Shenzhen Customs, said customs authorities will continue to focus on travelers’ needs and explore smarter and more convenient tax refund services, making Shenzhen service a stronger part of the city's appeal to overseas visitors.