Travellers wishing to bring more than 19 cigarettes into Hong Kong found a legal loophole yesterday - the first day that a new regulation covering duty-free tobacco came in force.
Instead of buying cigarettes in duty-free shops in the Hong Kong-bound checkpoint areas, where staff would then escort them to pay tax, numerous travellers opted to stock up on cartons of cigarettes away from the duty-free shops, in the mainland-bound area of the Lo Wu border control.
Because the mainland does not have restrictions on duty-free tobacco, their luggage would not be checked on their way out.
One man, who bought three cartons of cigarettes, said he planned to bring some cartons back to Hong Kong. '[Hong Kong customs officers] do not check regular-looking travellers like me. They usually target those who carry large bags and, thus, look like smugglers,' he said.
Another man, who bought four packs of cigarettes, said he would put two packs into his wife's handbag and keep two packs himself.
'They are for self-consumption. I do not think I will be caught [on my way back to Hong Kong],' he said.