[Sca-cooks] buying chinese spices

[Maggie MacDonald]

A friend of mine is doing regular trips to Hong Kong and South China right 
now, and was wondering if there was anything I wanted while he was 
there.  Of course there is, SPICES. However, theres some odd import 
restrictions on organic things.

Is there anybody familiar with what those restrictions might be, and what 
is convenient to pick up and bring back from there, in terms of spices?  He 
had problems trying to find sichuan pepper, but maybe it was because I had 
described it badly.

Thanks in advance!
Maggie

PS- he also makes frequent trips to Korea, what's good from there?