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Chinese customs caught 14 women trying to smuggle iPhones and iPads into China from Hong Kong. Authorities in Shenzhen caught the grey importers with $143,000 worth of kit. The 14 women had 88 iPads and 340 phones between them – one woman had an impressive 65 phones strapped to her waist and another 20 in her handbag, the …

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  1. G2
    WTF?

    chinese tax

    if they tax even personal tablets on the way in to prevent grey market imports, do they refund that tax on the way out? (if you have the receipt & other documents from when you entered)

    it would be common sense to me, not sure to the bureaucrats there though.

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    1. Cameron Colley
      Reply Icon

      I suspect that the tax only applies to Chinese citizens.

      I would expect people from anywhere else to have to fill in customs deceleration forms and be checked on the way out to see that they still had their iPads and the like with them.

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      1. Stoneshop
        Reply Icon
        Headmaster

        "customs deceleration forms"

        It's pretty common for Customs to slow you down, but I've never needed to fill in forms for that very act; it's always the result of something else they want.

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  2. LinkOfHyrule
    Coat

    Oh the irony

    The bloody things are made in China!

    And that one with twenty in her handbag, are you sure she wasn't just a typical Apple fanboi?

    Mines the one brimming with fondle slabs and Jesus phones

    (Bet someone made all these crap jokes before I got a chance to too!)

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    1. frank ly
      Reply Icon

      re. fanboi

      I'm not a biologist, but I'm sure the term would be 'fangurl'.

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      1. LinkOfHyrule
        Reply Icon
        Joke

        lol

        I'm not a fan-biologist either but I have never actually met a fangurl that hardcore, its always the blokes so I was unsure of the correct naming!

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  3. The main man

    Not suprising

    Seeing as they are made in China and Taiwan the Chinese version is of a much lower qaulity

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    1. Chimp
      Reply Icon
      Jobs Halo

      iStuff tax

      The tax seems to apply to everyone, and refunds? A hollow laughing sound.

      For the "the China made ones aren't as good as the Taiwan ones" - they are all assembled in China.

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  4. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Pint

    How big where these ladies?

    Did they hire the Chinese Olympic ladies shotput squad? A couple of dozen phones and slabs must weigh a fair bit!

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    1. Marvin the Martian
      Reply Icon
      Troll

      Viral marketing

      ... Or maybe they were regular ladies, and this was viral marketing highlighting the portability of the thingies?

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  5. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    Given that most Chinese women are slight of build ....

    just how many iThings will fit in a A or B size bra cup?

    Maybe MaCau would have been a better choice for crossing the border, a ferry trip from HongKong, as most destined for MaCau are after the casinos.

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    1. Allan George Dyer
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      but once you get them into Macau...

      you still have to cross the border to the Mainland. Macau is the other Special Administrative Region of China.

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  6. AdamWill
    FAIL

    Correction

    Terrible form, Reg. Just terrible. Throughout this article to refer to the hardware as an 'iPad'. The correct term is of course 'fondleslab'. Please correct ASAP.

    Outraged of Tunbridge Wells

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Why would they want to smuggle those fondle slabs into China?

    China uses a totally different 3G technology from the rest of the world (TD-SCDMA vs UMTS/W-CDMA or EVDO/CDMA2000) EDGE? You try downloading an app at that speed. Also, they don't have the necessary MicroSIMs to slot into the fondle slabs, rendering them kinda moot, unless taking risks shaving a regular SIM down to size is a risk they're willing to take.

    They probably just want geek cred...

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