Anyone know the law on detecting (water) in China?

[finderzzs]

I've been trying to find out the legality of metal detecting, specifically water/beach hunting, in China. Anyone have any info on this?

[Mark S.]

The best I can think of is to contact a Chinese embassy.

Mark S.

[finderzzs]

The best I can think of is to contact a Chinese embassy.

Mark S.

I've email them several times and got no response. Good thing I wasn't stuck in a Chinese prison..

[Tom_in_CA]

Mark, regarding your advise for finderzzs to contact a Chinese Embassy, scroll down to my thread "Detecting in Mexico", from last August. This will show the mis-information that a person can sometimes get, when going to such entities. I know, it seems bass-ackwards. I mean, what better place for someone get this information, than the lawmakers (and their representatives) themselves?

But it would be like if a foreigner were preparing to come to the United States, and asked a consulate, embassy, etc... "Is metal detecting legal in the United States?" I bet that, depending on who they asked, and how they phrased it, they might actually get a "no". Reason? Some bureaucrat may be couching their answer in terms of ARPA, federal land, shipwreck treasure salvor stuff, Bodie and Shiloh, etc....

A friend and I are planning to go to France this September, so I looked up on a website that details the laws of France. I was quite dismayed to see that it is, for all practical purposes, illegal, according the fuzzy wording of this site (except on beaches, which it excludes). So my friend and I have emailed ahead to local hobbyist, to ask what the "real skinny" is on the laws there. The fellow told me that they detect "forests and furroughed fields" and don't have any problem, despite what I may be reading on a laws-site. Just to be sure, I linked him direct to the website I was looking at. He responded by saying that there are "50,000 hobbyists there (I'm sure he was somewhat exaggerating), and none of them have any problem, as long as they are not detecting around standing/existing structures, or documented sensitive sites."

So my advice would be to contact hobbyist in that country, and see what the realities of things are. Perhaps manufacturers have a list of their dealers in other countries, one of which might be China? That is how we made contact with French hobbyists, was to inquire via a French Minelab dealer

[Mark S.]

I haven't read that thread Tom. I agree with the mis-information situation. As I am not all familiar with detecting in most other countries I thought the embassy could at least get a reply of wether or not detecting is even legal in the country. There are a few countries that it is totally illegal. Wasn't sure with China and the communistic sysytem.

I guess you have to look at it like in this country where each state has its own laws, so each area of China could actually be different. Probably best to make some kind of personal contact.

Mark S.