The Customs of the People’s Republic of China is a governmental organization responsible for supervision and control over all arrivals in and departures from the Customs territory, and comprises a three-tier hierarchical management structure: The top tier is the General Administration of Customs, the middle tier is Regional Customs (including Sub-Administration of Customs and Supervising Offices) and the third tier is Subordinate Customs (including Customs Houses and Offices). The General Administration of Customs is the headquarters of China Customs. It is a full-ministerial-level government agency that reports directly to the State Council of the People's Republic of China and is responsible for managing all the country’s regional customs, which, in turn, report to the General Administration instead of to their respective local governments.

Huangpu Customs is one of the seven regional customs in Guangdong Province. Historically, it was a Registration Office of Cantonese Customs established in Guangdong Province in the Qing Dynasty government in the 24th year of the Kangxi Reign (1685 A.D.). After the establishment of the People’s Public of China in 1949, it was restructured as the Huangpu Sub-Customs. In July 1980, it became a regional customs directly under the management of the General Administration of Customs. Huangpu Customs was upgraded to a deputy departmental level unit in August 1988 and a chief departmental level unit in November 2000. At present, Huangpu Customs has 11 customs houses and offices at the divisional level, 21 divisions (offices and bureaus) in its headquarters and a total of around 3,000 staff members under its employ.

Huangpu Customs is not only an important maritime port for foreign trade in South China, but it also manages one of the regions where the earliest processing trade zones, with the highest density, had been established. Its supervisory purview includes: Tianhe District (partial), Huangpu District, the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District (GETDD), Luogang District (partial), the Guangzhou Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (GHIDZ), the Guangzhou Free Trade Zone (GFTZ), the Guangzhou Export Processing Zone (GEPZ), as well as the cities of Zengcheng and Dongguan, covering a total territorial area of approximately 4,440 square kilometers. At present, with the exception of supervising international mail packages and international airlines, Huangpu Customs is undertaking a wide range of customs tasks including the supervision and control over all arrivals and departures of goods, conveyances, transportation vehicles for custom transition and travelers’ luggage, the processing of trade and free trade, the duty collection, the compilation of customs statistics, customs inspection, and the administration of the anti-smuggling unit, among others.