Can samples or exhibition-only cosmetics enter China without filing?

Samples and exhibition-only cosmetics do not enjoy a blanket right to skip China filing or registration if they will be placed on the mainland market. Finished cosmetics imported for general-trade sale generally need filing or registration before import. Goods that are not placed on the market—such as items admitted temporarily for a trade show and kept off sale, or laboratory reference samples handled under other customs rules—may follow a different temporary-entry route. Those routes are not a permission to sell, distribute as market samples, or later divert the same stock into retail.

Published 11 November 2026 · Updated 11 November 2026

How to judge the path

Cross-border e-commerce retail import is also not a silent sample exemption and not a path to unrestricted domestic resale.

Follow the customs and inspection-quarantine rules that apply to the actual entry purpose, which are separate from NMPA filing. See inspection-quarantine versus filing.

Typical documents, tests and labels

If the samples will later be sold, complete the correct filing or registration first. Jinshang Testing organizes the compliance work. Testing is coordinated with partner laboratories, and those laboratories issue the reports they perform. After a record is issued, check it on the official NMPA filing query https://hzpba.nmpa.gov.cn/gccx/ and the NMPA data-search page https://datasearch.nmpa.gov.cn/datasearch/home-index.html#category=hzp.

Cautions

Do not hand out unlabeled production leftovers at a China exhibition as if they were exempt consumer products.

Questions we are often asked

Can I give deluxe samples after the full-size product is filed?

A sample of the same filed product, formula and Chinese identity is not automatically a new cosmetic, but it must still match the file and bear the required labelling information for the unit you distribute.

Does a bonded exhibition warehouse replace NMPA registration for sunscreen?

No. Temporary exhibition storage does not register a sunscreen or authorize later general-trade sale.