Duty-free shops refer to enterprises that, with the approval of the General Administration of Customs, business units set up sales places and supervised warehouses that meet the requirements of customs supervision in places approved by People's Republic of China (PRC) and the State Council or their authorized departments to sell and supply duty-free goods to specific targets.

At present, domestic duty-free shops mainly include port duty-free shops, traffic duty-free shops, local duty-free shops, diplomatic duty-free shops, ship supply duty-free shops, and foreign exchange duty-free shops for Chinese people going abroad. Duty-free shops mainly supply overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese, compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China citizens visiting relatives abroad and domestic and foreign experts.

Duty-free goods refer to imported goods that business units bring in duty-free for their duty-free shops to sell and supply to specific targets according to the business varieties approved by the customs. The varieties of duty-free commodities operated by duty-free shops shall be reported to the General Administration of Customs for approval.