Shipping to China, cheaply as possible

[danb]

Hello. another request for help. I am trying to send stuff to China. I searched the site and not finding much useful information. I could swear the question must have been asked before. Why is it that i can't find much info? The only explanation I can come up with is the keywords. Maybe I am not using the right keywords. I spend the last few days researching small packages to China. It is rather expensive if I send it first class. That is what I did for a package that weigh 14 lbs, I use a flat rate box, It should get there in 5 days or so. I sent it thru the PO. The cost $85 dollars. To me that is rather expensive. But this package was time sensitive. Now I am try to send a couple more packages to China The total weight may be a tad over 70 + lbs. I am thinking that I have to avoid 1st class service. I think that I have find a company that ships 3 or 4th class service. The PO office, UPS , and Fed ex does not seem to offers those levels of shipment, only first class, very expensive.. Who does? I know if i was in China my Lao Po could get the same packagse to the states for less than 150 USD and it might take 6 weeks to get here. How do I find that type of service for packages going to China? I would really appreciate some help with this problems. Thank You. Danb

 

PS, I would like to add a sad tale to my post. On Friday, I went to the PO and asked about shipping my 14 LBS to China. I gave them all my info on the package. I gave them a postal code of 530023 for Nanning, China. They inputted that into their computer system. They came back and told me that Nanning was in several different province sush as Guangdong and Hunan I think. Not Guangxi Province. I had them reenter that same Postal code and then Postal codes of 530001 and 530002. Same type of results. Nanning was not located in Guangxi Province according to their computer system. I wonder where I have been visiting the last 6-8 years. Needless to say I did not mail my package that day. The next day I went to Staples and shipped it from there.

[Randy W]

Interesting that you would bring this up right now - I'll be going to the offices of Air-Sea Logistics here in Houston tomorrow to ship 4 boxes of about 200 lbs total tomorrow. It's airport-to-airport shipping - we'll have to go to the airport in Nanning to pick it up, but much more reasonable.

[danb]

Hi Randy, Thanks for your reply. Actually i read a post that you had made about this place. I found it before when I was searching around the forum yesterday. The place is located in the Houston area. That is a little far for me to travel to. But it does give me the idea to look around the local international airport area for a shipping company. Also when I do another search I will use the words "shipping company"...dahhh and the word logistics. Logistics is a term that I associate with the military and not a word that I normally use. BUt shipping company I should have come up with. I was focusing on the different levels of shipping and looking at the big companies such as USPS, UPS,FED-EX,etc. Thanks for the tip. Any idea on the cost and time frame for shipping stuff to Nanning? When I find out some options I will try to post them here. Thank you and have a good trip back home. Danb

[Randy W]

Seems like it took about 3 weeks to show up, and was around 2 dollars a pound. Search for "ship to China", "excess baggage to China", or even "partial container shipping" for companies that specialize in that sort of thing.

 

Thanks

[Randy W]

Just got back - they simply took my boxes, placed them on a pallet, and shrink-wrapped it to go on the plane. They said it MAY arrive before the Chinese New Year holiday begins next Wednesday - if not, it'll have to sit there for a week or two until customs opens again.

[Randy W]

Felt like I was already back home - the lady (owner) talked to her employees in Chinese, and some of them spoke English about like what you'd hear in China.