Duty-free sales boom in S China's Hainan during National Day holiday

South China's Hainan province raked in a whopping 1.47 billion yuan (about $228 million) in duty-free sales during the National Day holiday, posting an increase of 66.9 percent compared to last year. Data from Haikou Customs showed that Hainan's offshore duty-free shops received 180,000 customers and sold 200,000 pieces of duty-free merchandise during the seven-day holiday that ended on Oct 7, up by 136 percent and 61.6 percent year on year, respectively.