Just like Singapore & Malaysia.
There is metal detector at on-foot border controls but it is only used for suspicious individuals, probably 1/10th of the total traffic if not less. Some custom officer has to visually identify which people to be thrown at this lane, and an experienced smuggler knows how to avoid this. This is not an airport or high speed rail entry, there is not much risk in letting through metallic objects in fear of hijack. However all hand carried baggages have to go through I think an x-ray scanner like you get in airport, this is why the captioned smuggler needed to strap all the iPhones around his body.
They do change configurations a lot. But it is true that at least at the 2 railway controls, there is a good chance of not needing to get trough a metal detector, otherwise strapping 100 iPhones over your body would never work. And a lot has also changed in recent years, in the past it was relatively easy to, well, "get your special lane if you know which people to be friends with". The current regime seems to have much a tighter nerve on letting that happen, at least not on a laymen / everyday level. Interestingly this led to increased "importing" price for some goods as smuggling is the only way through and it's gotten way too difficult or outright impossible.
Well if you insists that no blocks exists, then so be it. I’m just speaking from personal experience anyways, don’t have to be personal you know
If I’m remembering correctly, the price of iPhones are actually more expensive in HK than in US? But yeah it’s not really worth it to buy Apple products in HK if you can purchase them in US. If you’re from China though that’s a different story.
Hong Kong should be thought of as a separate country in this respect. It has its own laws that are based on the British system whereas Mainland China is based on Chinese law. Because of this, and values brought by British rule, HK is a vastly more mature country in legal and social values.
I am afraid your information is at least couple years old. Losing WiFi and blocking VPNs and Youtube-like apps on iOS was only true during iPhone 3G/3GS era, at that time the Apple itself has not yet landed its 1st retail shop in China, and had to rely on 3G carrier(s), whom for monopoly and political reasons locked out WiFi on the iPhones. They sold poorly in fact, probably something to do with how crippled they were. Ever since iPhone 4 the Mainland Chinese unit is functionally the same as any worldwide unlocked unit, with small differences in radio or minor components. The government figured out better ways to lock people out of censored channels via the network, the carriers, Apple Store and so on.
As ridiculous as it sounded, the Mainland Chinese version of iPhone 3G/3GS actually did have no ****ing WiFi.
You seem a bit narrow in your perception. Do you see that I'm illustrating the environment of how this happens and that HK is different? HK is culturally miles apart from mainland China, so without the scalpers HK buyers would be able to get the phones like everyone else does. Because of the Ferengi like mad scrambling greed of the mainlanders, HK locals are restricted in how they can buy the phones.
