The state administrative organ that exercises the functions of import and export supervision and administration in accordance with the laws and administrative regulations of the country(or region). Customs is a state organ that supervises and inspects all goods and articles entering and leaving the country and collects customs duties in accordance with the regulations. To supervise the means of transport, goods, luggage, Postal articles and other articles entering and leaving the country; Collection of customs and other taxes and fees; Search for smuggling; Preparation of customs statistics; To handle other customs business.

The Customs of the People's Republic of China is the state's import and export supervision and management agency. It implements a vertical management system and is divided into three levels in the organization: the first level is the General Administration of Customs; The second level is the Guangdong Branch Office, two special commissioner offices in Tianjin and Shanghai, 41 direct customs offices and 2 customs schools(Shanghai Customs College and Qinhuangdao Customs School);

The third level is the 562 subordinate customs agencies under the direct jurisdiction of the customs. In addition, there are offices in Brussels, Moscow, Washington and Hong Kong. China Customs currently has more than 48,000 related officers(including customs anti-smuggling police). Today, there are 253 ports of the sea, land and air approved by the state, in addition to the nearly 200 ports of the second type originally approved by the people's governments at the provincial level.

The General Administration of Customs of China shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Customs Law, supervise the means of transportation, goods, luggage, Postal articles and other articles entering and leaving the country. In 2003, China's customs supervised 164.54 million tons of import and export goods, 22.92 million inbound and outbound transport vehicles(vehicles and racks), and 44.1 million containers of inbound and outbound containers, an increase of 1.6 %, 3 % and 26.4 % respectively. We supervised 232.59 million inbound and outbound personnel, 96.57 million postal items and 53.59 million express items.