Shanghai's first citywide 'buy and refund on the spot' departure tax refund counter located in a metro station opened at the 'Metro Welcome Hall' of Yuyuan Garden station, embedding refund services into public transport space for overseas visitors. The new counter works alongside the main Yuyuan commercial-area counter, so tourists can walk within five minutes between the scenic area, shops and the metro refund point, forming a closed loop of sightseeing, shopping and refunding. Financial services at the site combine spending, currency exchange and refunds in one place.
In recent years Shanghai has been the first in China to extend 'buy and refund on the spot' beyond shopping malls and commercial districts to hotels, bank branches, cultural venues and metro stations, building a citywide network of 36 citywide counters, 18 central counters and numerous single-store counters. Any overseas visitor shopping at a registered refund store can complete the refund nearby.
Shanghai also pioneered paperless departure tax refunds with an all-mobile process. The mobile service now bundles refund policies and an electronic map and is embedded in platforms including Hu Xiaoyou, Easy Go and Shisaitong, which is what allows the service to fit into public spaces such as metro stations. The tax authority publishes a bilingual refund map linking key counters with popular cultural landmarks and distributes it through 100 large hotels and 20 tourist information centres. During the recent WorldSkills competition, a temporary refund point was set up in the exhibition area, where portable smart refund devices and self-service refund machines were displayed.
In January-September 2026, Shanghai's departure tax refund sales grew 52% year on year, refund application forms grew 2.7 times, 'buy and refund on the spot' sales grew 1.4 times, and registered refund stores exceeded 2,700.