after 2 months letter still has not arrived to her :(

[Turbo SS1414]

I sent a letter to my girl pretty much exactly two months ago. I wrote her address in Pin Yin (except the word China) and was led to believe by some of my chinese friends that that would be ok. I also wrote my return address on the evenlope.

 

So I am starting to get a little concerned that the letter wont arrive. I was thinking it would take about 1 month. Can anyone shed some light on this. maybe people who have mailed letters to China before. I followed the post office instructions and put 3 stamps on it (I think they were 41c stamps if I remember right).

[johnxiaoying]

Usually takes 10 days or so. I had my wife write her address in Chinese and then I made photo copies so I could mail to her. Never had a problem.

[2mike&jin]

I sent a letter to my girl pretty much exactly two months ago. I wrote her address in Pin Yin (except the word China) and was led to believe by some of my chinese friends that that would be ok. I also wrote my return address on the evenlope.

 

So I am starting to get a little concerned that the letter wont arrive. I was thinking it would take about 1 month. Can anyone shed some light on this. maybe people who have mailed letters to China before. I followed the post office instructions and put 3 stamps on it (I think they were 41c stamps if I remember right).

 

I have never had anything take more than 10-12 days, DHL/Fedex included when going to China. (I also lived there and it would take about the same for my work place and friends to send things to me) For me, I would always take it to a US post office or UPS Parcel place to have it International Metered for postage or in the case of DHL or Fedex - International Bill of lading with appropriate customs declaration. Something is wrong if it takes more that 10-12 days.

 

As I remember small "birthday" or "I love you cards" cost me about $2.25 International Postage (there may have been some service fee at the UPS Store) to send to China. I know that a small box - about 8 LBS of clothing just cost us $28.00 to send to China and was received in about 8 days - which included the customs pass through...it was a standard post office box and postage, mailed at the post office with tracking number.

 

It also sounds like if you just put three stamps on it - you have no way of tracking it. This is problematic when shipping or posting to a foreign country - not advised if it has something important inside. As far as address --- Pinyin will work in 99% of the cases - and I always put the phone number on the package or envelope for the 1% where they cannot fully interpret the address. (Rember Pinyin is for us and tones - and I'm positive you didn't put tonal marks on the address) I don't think I would ever write the address in Chinese if I was mailing from the US. One question I have -- how would the US postal employees know that the letter was going to the PRC when you wrote China in Hanzi? How would they know? ALso, if using PINYIN ensure that it's PRC not CHina - as there is often confusion with ROC vice PRC. Not to put too much spin on this but where in the sequence, if at all, did you put the 6 digit Chinese equivalent of our Zip codes? ALso, did you use US or Chinese format for the address? (they are backwards - Zip, Country, Province, CIty, Street, #, person vice the US method of Person - small to large. These are all variations on the differences in a US address vice a Chinese address.

 

Back to the phone number. Even in big cities - a phone call will go a long way in ensuring things get to the recipient. That is why we always list the "dian hua hao ma" on all correspondence, just like DHL/FEDEX and EMS requires. In China we often would get a phone call (things that were mailed by my US Points of Contact when I lived there) to verify where we lived and validate before bringing the letter to the house.

 

I've also seen people put both the Pinyin and HANZI to: addresses to eliminate the chance of error. I never did this - because I was usually sending to fairly modern cities and no rural districts. I would employ this technique if I was sending to remote areas. The time for delivery would of course increase - but only by a few days at the most - not by weeks or months.

 

THis is a long diatribe to tell you I think your letter is toast! Sorry.

Edited September 16, 2009 by 2mike&jin (see edit history)

[george lee]

it costed me 5.80 cents to send a letter to my wife when she was in china, nyc to gz. i added tracking label for 1 dollar or less, i think. i wrote english on the labels with china and zip codes, and chinese on the envelop with china and zip code and cell phone. she gets it everytime in about 10 -15 days.

[Randy W]

--- Pinyin will work in 99% of the cases - and I always put the phone number on the package or envelope for the 1% where they cannot fully interpret the address. (Rember Pinyin is for us and tones - and I'm positive you didn't put tonal marks on the address) I don't think I would ever write the address in Chinese if I was mailing from the US. One question I have -- how would the US postal employees know that the letter was going to the PRC when you wrote China in Hanzi? How would they know? ALso, if using PINYIN ensure that it's PRC not CHina - as there is often confusion with ROC vice PRC. Not to put too much spin on this but where in the sequence, if at all, did you put the 6 digit Chinese equivalent of our Zip codes? ALso, did you use US or Chinese format for the address? (they are backwards - Zip, Country, Province, CIty, Street, #, person vice the US method of Person - small to large. These are all variations on the differences in a US address vice a Chinese address.

 

Back to the phone number. Even in big cities - a phone call will go a long way in ensuring things get to the recipient. That is why we always list the "dian hua hao ma" on all correspondence, just like DHL/FEDEX and EMS requires. In China we often would get a phone call (things that were mailed by my US Points of Contact when I lived there) to verify where we lived and validate before bringing the letter to the house.

 

I've also seen people put both the Pinyin and HANZI to: addresses to eliminate the chance of error. I never did this - because I was usually sending to fairly modern cities and no rural districts. I would employ this technique if I was sending to remote areas. The time for delivery would of course increase - but only by a few days at the most - not by weeks or months.

 

THis is a long diatribe to tell you I think your letter is toast! Sorry.

 

The word PRC CHINA or just CHINA of course needs to be in the western alphabet. That'll get it to the right country - from there, they can all read the Chinese characters. If, at any step along the way, someone in the post office doesn't read western characters, a pinyin-only address may get lost there.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Jaseball]

If it is over 20 days it is probably either lost or stolen. I had little trouble in most of my letters, but one time I send $170 and hid it in the letter, but that one never arrived. Never found out if it was lost or stolen.

 

Never had a package get lost, but they were usually tracked and insured.

[weiaijiayou]

As far as address --- Pinyin will work in 99% of the cases - and I always put the phone number on the package or envelope for the 1% where they cannot fully interpret the address. (Rember Pinyin is for us and tones - and I'm positive you didn't put tonal marks on the address) I don't think I would ever write the address in Chinese if I was mailing from the US. One question I have -- how would the US postal employees know that the letter was going to the PRC when you wrote China in Hanzi? How would they know? ALso, if using PINYIN ensure that it's PRC not CHina - as there is often confusion with ROC vice PRC. Not to put too much spin on this but where in the sequence, if at all, did you put the 6 digit Chinese equivalent of our Zip codes? ALso, did you use US or Chinese format for the address? (they are backwards - Zip, Country, Province, CIty, Street, #, person vice the US method of Person - small to large. These are all variations on the differences in a US address vice a Chinese address.

I also think your letter is lost. There still is the possibility that it will be found and she'll get it at some point, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

I've probably sent about 25 letters and packages to China, and only one didn't get there within about two weeks. The one that didn't make it in this timeframe arrived about a month later (it was a small letter and looked very beat up when I saw it). I always wrote the addressee's name and address in Chinese characters and included the word "China" in English at the bottom so it would get out of the US and into China.

 

Writing in tone-less pinyin should have a good chance of getting there IF you write it correctly. If you write the pinyin yourself and don't fully understand Chinese pronunciation and pinyin there would probably end up being mistakes that could confuse people.

[Sam and Fen]

If the local post office in China does not understand English or Pinyin they will just keep it at the PO. Have your SO check with the PO to see if they are holding it there.

 

This has happened to me..

[Turbo SS1414]

I did write the word CHINA in English on her address. Also, I mailed it using Chinese format order and I did put the long zip code on. I did not think to put her phone number on it. Also, she said I didnt have to put tones on the pin yin for the address so I didnt.

 

I just wrote her a hand written note. Part of it was just to do something nice and part of it was to test if my letter would get there and how long it would take. I will have her check with the post office next time I talk to her. Thanks for the help guys. I have a much better idea what to do next time