Good morning, everyone. We seem to have a fair amount of people who are from, and/or travel around East Asia here, so I wonder if you could help me with something.

I'll be flying into HK in a couple of weeks, and I was planning on bringing at least an iPad, and maybe an iPad and a laptop, to do work while I'm in China. I was just informed that there is a RMB 1000 tax on bring laptops (including iPads) into China. However, my google-fu hasn't helped me figure out what the nature of the tax is. Some people say it only applies to iPads and laptops that are still in their boxes, others say it applies to everything; some people say it only applies to people entering China through HK, others say that it's just enforced more sloppily elsewhere; some people imply that nearly every laptop gets hit with this fee, other people say that it's only if they decide to rifle through your bags.

Has anyone who flew into HK recently been hit with this tax? Has anyone brought in an iPad without paying the tax?

I think the best way to figure this out (and to be sure that you get the right answer) is to contact their embassy.

As you say yourself, some says this, others say that, The ones who should know for sure is probably working at the Chinese embassy =)