Sending Mail to China

[hank]

I have been trying to send letters to my fiance in Shenzhen, but I must be unlucky. The letters never arrive. Does anyone know if I should write the address in Chinese or English? I am mailing them from Pennsylvania.

 

And when the consulate sends the P3, do they address the envelopes in English or Chinese? I ask because my fiance is not really sure how to write her address in English. And I am afraid that I may have written the English version of her address incorrectly on the I-129F.

 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[wolffjw]

Hi Hank,

 

I regularly send letters to Dalian using Global Priority (from the US Post Office). It generally takes 8 to 10 days, sometimes faster. I always put the address in Chinese characters and have never had any problem. If you are not sure how to address it, have your SO send you an email with her address properly displayed. Then you can print it out and tape it on the package. That is how I do it and it works fine.

 

-jim

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

Howdy Hank, (Sorry, I feel compelled to say "howdy" to anybody named Hank)

 

I figured out how to address an envelope in Chinese and English and print it out from my computer.

 

For some reason, I've never been able to send Chinese characters through e-mail and have it make sense when ShuPing got it. However, I overcame this by printing out the address in both Pinyin and Chinese and showing it to her on the web cam.

 

She can tell you if the Chinese is correct and probably tell you if the Pinyin is good too. ShuPing wrote it down for me in a letter she sent me and I was able to copy the Pinyin.

 

I sent one package to China and it was lost, anything you send via snail mail is likely not gonna make it. You have to use UPS or DHL to make sure it gets there, but then you pay for the service.

 

Hope that helps and I hope you're not mad about the howdy thing.

[Carl]

I have sent many packages to Ying in China via USPS air mail with no trouble. It generally takes 7 to 10 days for it to get there. While using UPS might be more reliable it is a little more costlier. There are good points and bad points for both. But I trust the security and sanctity of the US postal system that my packages will arrive in a timely and intact manner. But people should use whatever method they are comfortable with and don't worry. As many have already found out, The mail always gets through.

 

 

carl

[pkfops]

I send to Guangzhou via global priority with both English and

Chinese address.

 

I had my Fiancee email me her address in Chinese and I copied

it to a word document to make a sheet of labels.

 

Works great.

 

Remember the Chinese go from Big to Small. Postal code in the

upper left. Then; Country, Province, City, Address and Person.

 

My fiancee's sister said if nobody in the local post office can read

English; the letter doesn't get delivered until they find someone who

can understand it.

 

pkf

 

--------------------

Pete & Wai Fai's

 

K1 Timeline

Sent I 129F....................03/25/04

NOA 1............................03/29/04

NOA 2............................08/16/04

NVC Approval..................Pending (Wai Fai's Name Check)

NVC Sent to GZ...............Pending

Arrive at Consulate..........Pending

P3.................................Pending

P3 sent..........................Pending

P4.................................Pending

Interview........................Pending

Visa...............................Pending

[Carl]

Oh yeah,

I forgot to add, I print off Ying's address with the edition of her name on top and her city, province and China, PRC in english characters in the address. I then tape it to the front and go to the post office and mail it.

 

Regular mail takes about 4 to 6 months to get there, but air mail takes only days.

 

 

 

You decide

 

Carl

[leejcandle]

On mailing labels:

I too created a set with both English and Chinese characters for the address. My packages always get there.

 

In addition, when you need to use a pressure sensitive multi-sheet mailing form, you can use a sticky label on each sheet. (It would take me all day to have to write all the characters, much less have them show through intelligibly on the copies.)

So when I go to the post office, I have several sheets of labels in 2 sizes; and just rip'em and stick'em whereever they're needed.

 

 

On sending Chinese characters in email:

Make sure you set the character coding to Chinese Simplified (GB2312). Even though your computer could be setup to read and write Chinese, your email could get garbled if the charset isn't set properly.

In my case, the mail composer lets me write the Chinese, but complains if I try to send it and haven't set the proper charset. So I made some email templates with the charset already coded to GB2312; no worries.

[lele]

For me, I just have learned to write the address in Chinese characters. I just send it through the normal US Mail service, and it always gets there. It is true that some of the mail people in her city can not read English and even some can not read pinyon. The only reason why I write in pinyon is because sometime the people on the US SIDE want to know where it is going.

 

It always arrives in a short amount of time. If you send it global priority mail (not the next day service, but the other one), you can even track it.

 

Good luck!

[Jason+Joanna]

I use global priority mail, but I have used regular mail in the past. All of the global priority mails have arrived, and only one regular mail has not been delivered yet.

 

I only use english addressing, and it seems to work fine. Then again, Shenzhen is a large city, so that probably helps.

[lele]

I use global priority mail, but I have used regular mail in the past. All of the global priority mails have arrived, and only one regular mail has not been delivered yet.

 

I only use english addressing, and it seems to work fine. Then again, Shenzhen is a large city, so that probably helps.

It is next to Hong Kong, so I bet that they see a lot of english.

 

Even large cities such a Shanghai and Beijing can not guarantee you delivery if it is in English. My advice to you would be to use Chinese.

 

Also, do not send ANYTHING OF VALUE in the mail, as it may get lifted (and the rest of the package along with it!).

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

On sending Chinese characters in email:

  Make sure you set the character coding to Chinese Simplified (GB2312). Even though your computer could be setup to read and write Chinese, your email could get garbled if the charset isn't set properly.

  In my case, the mail composer lets me write the Chinese, but complains if I try to send it and haven't set the proper charset. So I made some email templates with the charset already coded to GB2312; no worries.

Hey, Thanks Lee, I'll try this one.

 

I have to say that I have sent a couple of letters to her without problems, but the package I sent with gifts never arrived.

 

One point to note, we can all trust the USPS, but once they turn the package over to the Chinese post, it's out of their hands.

[hlin]

I've never had any problems sending mail to Shanghai via USPS first class and priority for both letters and packages. I think it takes from 1.5-2 weeks to receive them. Shipping priority doesn't make it that much faster.

 

The address I type is always in Chinese. I always use Traditional characters and have no problems. I just print up a bunch on a sheet of labels and just peel-and-stick whenever I need to mail something.

[LouRose]

It's definitely safer to put the address in both English and Chinese, and I always did that when I sent my husband stuff from home. However, my family and friends send me things here in Beijing with only the address in English and I always get them no problem. Once I got a letter in only five days. It seems that in big cities all the post offices have people that can read English or at least pinyin, because when i get these letters someone has written the chinese characters onto the envelopes. Probably it just depends on where the letter is going.

*~Louisa~*

[beijingjenny]

I have never in three years had problems getting mail addressed only in English, have never even tried to get someone to write it in Chinese. Like Louisa said, I'm pretty sure there's some int'l sorting dept that makes scribbles on it in Chinese for the delivery guys.

 

Our P-3 was addressed in Chinese.

[Mengxin]

On sending Chinese characters in email:

    Make sure you set the character coding to Chinese Simplified (GB2312). Even though your computer could be setup to read and write Chinese, your email could get garbled if the charset isn't set properly.

    In my case, the mail composer lets me write the Chinese, but complains if I try to send it and haven't set the proper charset. So I made some email templates with the charset already coded to GB2312; no worries.

Hey, Thanks Lee, I'll try this one.

 

I have to say that I have sent a couple of letters to her without problems, but the package I sent with gifts never arrived.

 

One point to note, we can all trust the USPS, but once they turn the package over to the Chinese post, it's out of their hands.

It's better to use Chinese Traditional. It's common and more people prefer it.

 

If you have Microsoft Office, You can use outlook or word to save the adresses in Chinese and English. Just print them out whenever you need to. Always use both.

 

Send me a PM. I'll help you out with the adress. Send it in Chinese. I went through the same thing. If it helps also the adress should go something like this.

 

Name Last first

Room # Unit # Bluilding #

City, Provence

PRC - Mainland