By Huiqin Ma
My friend and wine maker Charles was stopped at Yantai airport in Shandong Province last week. The reason: security found more than two bottles of wine in his check-in luggage. He had to leave numerous bottles of expensive wine behind, including a special one meant for me!
Charles asked if there is a new law on how many bottles may be included in check-in baggage. The answer is no.
The original limit was two 750 ML bottles, but enforcement of this rule has become stricter since March. In addition, no bottles may be carried on as hand luggage.
For those working in the wine industry, carrying sample bottles in check-in luggage as they travel back and forth across the country is far more convenient than transporting them by other means, especially when delivery services sometimes are unable to keep up to the demands of customers. However, given the upcoming Olympics and upgraded security, I don’t expect any leniency on the two-bottle limit any time soon.
[Another person in the wine industry recently informed me had the same experience as described above, while flying from Beijing to Shanghai. – JB]
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Fortunately, I discovered this issue before transporting 2 cases of wine from Beijing to Shanghai. I ended up taking them to Air Cargo, the only possible way of shipment! It cost me about $20usd for the shipment, but once in Shanghai I was able to put each case in different check-in luggage for the trip back to the US. Word of caution though…lay those bottles down for at least two weeks before opening them!