Rules about photographing in China?

I will be visiting Beijing and other cities in China this spring and am wondering if anyone knows if there are any restrictions about brining photos out of the country?

A co-worker told me that a friend of his had his memory cards confiscated when he was leaving the country?

Does any one have any facts about this?

I think it depends on what you take photos of

Im guessing this really depends as mentioned already what the photos were taken of.

why not contact the american embassy in China, they would know the rules, just google them, they will have an email address.
Thousands of people must take photographs in China, surely they cant confiscate them all.
best of luck

photobod wrote: why not contact the american embassy in China, they would know the rules, just google them, they will have an email address.
Thousands of people must take photographs in China, surely they cant confiscate them all.
best of luck

Good advice, I would love to visit China some day. I have always admired the Great Wall of China

I agree with Photobud. I'm guessing your co-workers buddies must have been photographing one of China's secret military factories!

Millions of tourist each year visit China, if you keep a good head on your shoulders you should have no problems there!

I think it would be cool to visit Russia.

My experience when travelling to non-democratic countries is to just be circumspect about what you take photos of. Avoid taking anything military - they're sensitive about that. If you just shoot general interest pics, you should be okay.

Interesting anecdote - when I was in Russia in 1973, a military convoy went past our group. Several of the soldiers took photos of us, so I took a few in return. I have a great one of a soldier in a military truck taking my picture.

Oh, the border guards confiscated my husband's TIME magazine when we entered the country. They actually returned it to us on the other side of the country 10 days later as we were leaving - extremely the worse for wear, I might add.

K since I actually techically live in China, perhaps I should reply to this.

Hong Kong is quite different to "Mainland" China of course, so I'll just give advice about mainland China. Suffice to say 90% of the time you'll have no problem in Hong Kong.


You MAY have problems in China if one of the following happens:

1. They think you're a journalist and there's a major event going on.

During the Beijing Olympics I went on a cruise ship tour to Heinan Island (and later Vietnam, but that's not the point) when getting of the ship on Heinan island I had a 5DII, 200L and 24-105 lens with me. The security at customs didn't want me to go in and held me aside for about 10 minutes. They eventually let me go in, telling me NOT to hand my memory cards to anyone else while I was going around and that they'll check when I leave (they didn't, but they made the threat).

2. You don't look like a Westerner Tourist.

This sounds funny, but (and this is straight from the mouth of my friend who's from China) "The Chinese judge people by how they look all the time." So if you look like a typical Western tourist (NOT a journalist) you'll probably be left alone by security (thieves are the opposite BTW, so be warned).

3. You take a lot of pictures of Military Bases, Soldiers etc.

If you're in Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall or another of the many tourist sites around, you're pretty free to take photos. The guards sorta expect it. Just don't go too far out of your way to take photos of "sensitive" places.

4. You're just unlucky

Good luck with that one.



So yeah, it's not rocket science. Just be careful and don't rock the boat, you'll be fine. Act like you've got a government officer tailing you all the time is a good idea (I mean don't do anything like protest Tibet or whatever). Because you probably DO have a government officer trailing you.

scarman1313 wrote: I think it would be cool to visit Russia.

I would enjoy that visit myself, there was show on one of those discover channels about the vast wilderness in Russia, I bet many of those areas would be incredible to photographer.

Moossmann wrote: I bet many of those areas would be incredible to photographer.

You could photograph it too.

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Moossmann wrote: I bet many of those areas would be incredible to photographer.

You could photograph it too.

Whoops, would it help if I said I've had a few beers tonight?

Moossmann wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Moossmann wrote: I bet many of those areas would be incredible to photographer.

You could photograph it too.

Whoops, would it help if I said I've had a few beers tonight?

Mmmm maybe it would help if I had a few beers too...

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Moossmann wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Moossmann wrote: I bet many of those areas would be incredible to photographer.

You could photograph it too.

Whoops, would it help if I said I've had a few beers tonight?

Mmmm maybe it would help if I had a few beers too...

I've been glued to this site pretty much since I signed up here a week ago, after a long day of working my butt off I like to have a couple drinks. Well needless to say my attention to detail is tossed out the window at that point. But I enjoy this site so I snoop around and read all the post and look at everyone's photos in the gallery.

by the way dont forget to let us see the photos when you return, that is if they let you out of the country haha.