Knife carrying laws in China?

I can tell you out of my own experience that I (as a caucasian tourist) was not allowed to board a flight in Hotan (Xinjiang province) heading to Urumuqi because I had decorative knives in my checked-in luggage. They were about 13cm long with the grip and very nicely decorated.

I did not have any in my carry on. On check-in they X-Rayed the luggage and told me that I had to take them out of my luggage and leave them at the airport.

I just travelled from Kashgar to Yarkand by train. My travel vegetable knife and a small table knife were confiscated at security at Kashgar station. They were both in my big bag. It seems there is no way to carry knives, however small and harmless, on trains in China.

I'm a US Citizen and I have lived and worked in China for 18 years. I have had three knives confiscated. One was taken during a road block on a super highway in the run-up to the Asia Games. They randomly stopped cars, searched them and the pockets of the passengers. I was carrying a folding pocket knife with a blade of 7.5 CM. It was a lock blade. The took it saying that because it was a locking blade, it was classified as an offensive weapon. The second time was at a border crossing. Same kind of knife, same result and reason.

The third time was in Hong Kong. Same kind of knife, but it was a spring assist lock blade, not a switch blade. It was as an airport screening. I forgot to put it in my checked bag. I alerted the screener. She opened it and said she had to call the police. They took the knife, gave me a formal Interpol Warning and said if I was ever caught with a lock blade in Hong Kong again I would be arrested and jailed.

My advice, don't carry a lock blade of any length and no knife over 2.5 inches (65 mm +/-)

In China, there are security checkpoints when you enter train or bus stations. Also in the subway. Your knife will be confiscated. No matter how small it is.

I would say it always varies.

When I was in Shanghai two years ago, having a small Swiss knife in my checked luggage, it had passed through all the security procedure in all of their Metro stations for 3 days.

The last day evening, while I was heading for the airport to leave their culture-shock land, I was stopped at a station. They seemed to suddenly think my knife mattered!? I didn't know what they said in Chinese at first until a Chinese lady (maybe, a Hong Konger or Taiwanese) translated it for me. I said (rather loudly), "but it has passed every checks until my last day! Why is it the problem now? The day I am leaving for the airport…!"

They let me go right away, saying nothing. They should understand only a few words, too.

Keep in mind that I am also an Asian (SE - not Chinese), but definitely in a tourist look.

In another trip, last year, it was exactly the same timing, the day I was leaving for the airport. Coincidence?

But this time I had learnt the lesson, so no more "dangerous" things with me at all. I told them in front of their PC, "Roll the screen back, please. Let me see what was that?". They failed to show it to me, so they put my luggage in the scanner again!

It was that they mistook my plastic dining knife & fork for weapons…

Well, so they let me go very faster than the last time.

An interesting one.

When in Amsterdam recently, travelling, en route to China, I discovered a pocket knife in my pocket. I decided it better to leave it with family in China since it had a locking blade which is now technically illegal in the UK.

On going through Security checking in Beijing for an onward flight, they took out my key pouch to examine and to my horror I realised that there was on the ring a small folding knife with the scales in the form of a Yale-type key.

The inspecting officer said nothing -- and the keyring kinife went through a number of other security checks on the return journey.

When I think of the number of times I've been strip-searched and subjected to detailed inspections in the past, it's a trifle ironic that I wasn't stopped anywhere on the occasion I was carrying items which I would not have deliberately packed in my hand baggage or indeed carried at all.

There was a time when I was carrying in my bag a pair of medal nunchucks (I had just bought them in a local shop) into the subway station. They were stopped by the metal detector and I was told that I either had to give them up or take some other form of transportation.

So yeah, China can be a bit overreacting when it comes to this kind of things. And if you think about, it may cause inconveniences, but it's not entirely a bad thing to the public, is it?