Recently, Beijing unveiled the multilingual Beijing Departure Tax Refund Guide (hereinafter referred to as the “Guide”) and a digital map highlighting departure tax refund stores across the city, to facilitate shopping for inbound tourists.

The Guide is available in seven languages (Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Russian and Mongolian), providing comprehensive information through visual illustrations. Through a combination of text and graphics, it details the tax refund eligibility criteria and application procedures, and addresses frequently asked questions, making it easy to claim a refund with the guide in hand.

In parallel, Beijing launched the mobile version of the “Digital Map of Departure Tax Refund Stores in Beijing”, marking the locations of over 1,000 such stores across the city. Key features include real-time navigation, multi-dimensional search and a bilingual interface (Chinese-English), enabling overseas visitors to quickly locate their preferred tax refund outlets via their mobile devices.

Currently, the Beijing Municipal Tax Service has made the Guide and digital map available at inbound travelers’ first points of entry, including the “Beijing Service” counters and convenient payment service centers for overseas visitors at airports. Travelers can access these resources immediately upon arrival. Meanwhile, they are also available in major commercial areas and hotels that accommodate foreign nationals, providing support throughout travelers’ tourism and consumption journeys.

Statistics show that Beijing has over 1,000 departure tax refund stores, the largest number nationwide. In the first quarter of this year, the city’s departure tax refund services maintained strong growth: the number of relevant application forms issued surged 128% year-on-year, while sales of tax-refundable goods reached 270 million yuan, representing 100% year-on-year growth. Notably, key commercial areas like the CBD and Wangfujing accounted for over 90% of such sales in the first quarter. Meanwhile, sales of items sold by traditional “time-honored” brand stores, such as Chinese patent medicine, silk and handicrafts, rose 28% year-on-year.