Offshore duty-free shopping in Hainan soared to 5.58 billion yuan ($816 million) in the two months from July to August, increasing 221.9 percent year-on-year, with cosmetics becoming the best seller in both sales volume and transactions, Haikou Customs District of China said on Tuesday.

Consumers spent most of their money on cosmetics, which saw transactions reaching 2.77 billion yuan, accounting for 49.6 percent of the total. The transactions of watches and jewelry hit 670 and 660 million yuan, which accounted for 12 and 11.9 percent of the total, respectively.

Starting July 1, Hainan raised the offshore duty-free shopping quota to 100,000 yuan per person each year from the previous 30,000 yuan.

Categories of goods were also expanded from 38 to 45, with some wine and electronic products added to the duty-free list being of particular interest to consumers.

The duty-free shopping policy not only promoted the construction of Hainan into an international tourism and shopping center, but it also brought vitality to the development of Hainan Free Trade Port.