This aerial photo taken on April 4, 2023 shows a night view of the Haikou International Duty-Free Shopping Complex in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

During the past 12 years, south China's island province of Hainan has recorded total offshore duty-free sales of 185 billion yuan (about 26.8 billion U.S. dollars) since introducing relevant policies, said Haikou Customs Thursday.

As of Wednesday, 34.28 million shoppers had purchased 185 billion yuan of offshore duty-free products on the island. Since Hainan launched the policy that allows domestic tourists to buy products on the island without taxation on April 20, 2011, rounds of adjustments on the initial policy have taken place, increasing the island's annual tax-free shopping quota from 5,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan per person and expanding the major categories of duty-free goods from 18 to 45.

China released a master plan in June 2020 to build Hainan into a globally influential and high-level free-trade port by the middle of the century. Over recent years, the island province has become an attractive shopping destination for domestic consumers.

Through years of efforts to enhance the local tourism and shopping sector, Hainan now boasts 12 offshore duty-free shops.