Just Spoke with Andrew Simkin

[Eric&Yuhui]

the news i was given today, is that GZ had planned to have ALL visas printed by close of business Friday ///snip.

jon

who told you that?

and is it all clearances received at GZ?

[AZwolfman]

uh....you sure he meant THIS Friday? He sure seems to be an optimistic guy.

[owenkrout]

One thing I have to add to this postal service in China is that if it is not more, it is certainly as reliable as it is in the US.  Chinese take postal service very seriously.  My 13 years of correspondence between China and here never got lost.  Although they did not have the kind of privacy as most Americans enjoy here, in my opinion, whether it is regular or EMS, it is more of a matter of time than dependability.  For those who live in a relatively nice size city, you should not worry too much.  If your fiancee lives in a rural area, you may need to contact GZ to confirm the mailing, just in case.

I agree Charlotte that postal service in both China and US are in many ways equal, equally bad. I can say without reservation that in the five years I have lived here, I have had more mailed lost or undelivered than delivered. I can understand that maybe here in Shantou as it is only a medium sized city. But Hefei, where I lived for a year, was the Provencial Capital! Sorry, but based on my personal experience, regular mail is wrought with difficulties over here. And in doesn't seem to matter much whether the address is in English or Chinese, both seem to get lost with equal frequency, at least in my case.

We have a nephew who works for the post office and he advised us to never have important letters delivered to our home. When we were living in the city where he works, we used his office address for the GZ correspondence. Now we have to use the college anyway, so there is no option. It may make a difference where you are in China. Here in the frozen north-east, people usually don't have mail boxes because of common mail theft problems. They are either at home to recieve the mail directly or a notice is left and they go pick it up at the post office.