Zhuhai’s Gongbei Customs announced in a statement yesterday that its officers seized 6 cultural relics at Zhuhai’s Wanzai Port (border checkpoint) recently.
According to the statement, while conducting routine inspections at the checkpoint of Wanzai Ferry Terminal, customs officers noticed an anomaly in the luggage of one traveller.
Wanzai (“Cove”) is the Putonghua Pinyin spelling of the place. In Macau and Hong Kong, the same name is spelt “Wan Chai” in Cantonese transliteration.
Gongbei Customs did not elaborate on where the traveller is from.
Upon inspection, the statement said, customs officers discovered seven suspected cultural relics among the items the passenger was carrying.
Upon assessment by the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage Appraisal Station, according to the statement, two of the items were identified as “late Qing Dynasty light-outlined blue-and-white lotus-patterned dishes”, one as a “late Qing Dynasty blue-and-white lingzhi*-patterned dish”, one as a “late Qing Dynasty blue-and-white figure-patterned vase”, one as a “Republic of China period famille rose** figure-patterned four-lugged jar” and one as a “blue-and-white landscape-patterned bowl produced in Japan between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century”. The statement underlined that all six items are classified as general cultural relics that are prohibited from being taken out of the country.
Gongbei Customs reminded the public that according to the Cultural Relics Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), any cultural relics intended for export must undergo inspection by an authorised cultural relics exit-entry examination agency designated by the State Council’s cultural relics administration.
Upon approval, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will issue an exit permit for verified cultural relics, and the relics can only be exported through designated border checkpoints.
Any entity or individual shipping, mailing, or carrying cultural relics out of the mainland must declare them to customs, and customs officers will release the items only upon presentation of the verified cultural relics’ export permits.
*Lingzhi” is a medicinal, “luminous “mushroom. - Gemini
**A type of Chinese porcelain, decorated in overglaze enamels. - Wiktionary
Macau Customs seizes frozen beef backstrap worth 28,000 patacas
Macau Customs Service officers raided a parallel-trading den in the peninsula’s northern district on Thursday, where they seized 900 kilograms of frozen beef backstrap* worth 28,000 patacas in total.
According to a statement on Saturday, the officers caught a 26-year-old local male who ran the den and hired parallel traders to smuggle frozen beef backstrap from Macau to the mainland.
The man faces a fine in compliance with the relevant provisions listed in the External Trade Law, the statement said.
Moreover, the statement added, the man violated the Food Safety Law as the supposedly frozen beef backstrap was stored merely at room temperature, adding that the Customs Service has meanwhile transferred the case to the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) for follow-up action.
Meanwhile, as the business premises in question did not possess a valid operating licence, the case has been referred to the Financial Services Bureau (DSF) for follow-up.
*Beef backstrap can refer to two very different things depending on context: a premium cut of meat for human consumption or a natural, single-ingredient dog chew. – Gemini
This undated handout photo provided by Zhuhai’s Gongbei Customs yesterday shows 6 cultural relics seized by its officers recently.
This undated handout photo provided by Macau Customs Service on Saturday shows frozen beef backstrap stored at room temperature at a parallel trading den in the peninsula’s northern district on Thursday.
