Sending Mail to China

[xian47]

Wolffjw..you are so right.Mailing label in Chinese Character..you can't go wrong.

[G-man]

I have sent mail by regular postal air mail about 8 times and have had no problems. They were addressed in English and were sent to a mini-village outside(way) of Luizhou. I saw one car, I think they were visiting! To test censorship, I have sent cash to see if it gets through. No problem yet.

[eeyore]

I use English on the envelopes and so far I have only lost one letter to China in a year or so.

 

One of the letters my wife sent to me was opened by customs and was labled so.

 

Having your so write her mailing address for you to photocopy is a good idea. Use both English for the u.s. side and Chinese for China makes the most sense.

[johns]

USPS seemed to work the best for me.

 

My dad sends cards and letter with the regular mail. More important things he uses global priority. Never had a problem with either. Always in a timely matter. The address we use is an local international hotel. That may help since its a well known address.

 

Now a parcel takes MUCH longer than a letter. I recieved our Xmas presents in mid-March last year sent out on Dec 1 2004 from USA.

 

English address is all my family has ever used when sending me any mail also.

[Chad&Tong]

I mailed and have had my family mail us things in Shanghai and Shenzehn in English with no problem. My family always uses regular maiul route. It always gets here.

 

Chad and Tong

[jkobman]

Sarah made up labels with Chinese one line and English the next line. An envelope would take 10-14 days Virginia -> Nanjing.

 

Also, each of the larger Chinese Post Office facilities has a section that deals with non-Chinese mailing labels. The speed of delivery often depends on how fast they process and dispatch the letter/pkg.

[cosmiclobster]

After about 6 padded mailer envelopes got through with no problem (with only an English address on them), her (physically small) birthday present wrapped in a similar manner has still not gotten there after about 6 weeks.

So now I will send all packages with English and Chinese. I sent a package with USPS global express mail last time, due to arrive in a few days. I'll post again if it doesn't get there.

[jimglot]

I just sent my Christmas presents to Yafei via Express from DHL. It was a little expencive 80.55 to send 3.1lbs worth of package. But it sure was fast. I sent it on the 8th and it arived for pickup in Shenyang on the 13th.

 

Yafei had made me labels when i was in China and i just taped them right next to the DHL label. They found her no problem.

 

 

Regards,

 

Jim

 

P.S. I bet she made me the labels so i would find it EASIER to mail her gifts!!!

<grin>

[tywy_99]

To the original question of this thread, I have always put the address on packages both in Chinese and English.

[MikeXiao]

I always send mail, with both the English and Chinese address. When I sent mail with only the English address, it took about 2 months to get there, if it even got there. Emails, I use the encoding with XP to transfer to simplified Chinese. Then I have a translator program, that will translate to English. I use this same program to send Chinese email to my wife. She has no problems understanding it, so it must work pretty good.

[johnxiaoying]

My wife wrote out her address in Chinese which I photocopied and I tape onto the envelopes with CHINA written below the address. Once the envelope makes it to China the China post office gets it delivered. All the mail I have sent to her has been received. Only once have I not received a letter which she sent.

[frank1538]

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.

I have always shown both addresses (English and Chinese) on anything I send to China. Since my computer/printer will print the address in Chinese, I had Jingwen send me an e-mail with her address in Chinese which I saved for future labels.

 

As far as sending the P3 in Chinese, I really don't know other than to say that Jingwen's first P3 never arrived, and I ended up having to send the consulate her address in Chinese. Her second P3 was addressed in Chinese.

[lele]

I have a 100% record.

 

2 things to watch for:

 

1. except for in *big* cities, people may not be able to read english. Even in small cities, people may not be able to read pinyon (so it will be delayed or just not delivered).

 

2. Never send anything of value! people will likely steal it and the rest of the package along with it. *GGG* this already happens to US main services (why we are always told, do not send cash!)

[yyn701]

I have a 100% record.

 

2 things to watch for:

 

1. except for in *big* cities, people may not be able to read english.  Even in small cities, people may not be able to read pinyon (so it will be delayed or just not delivered).

 

2. Never send anything of value!  people will likely steal it and the rest of the package along with it.  *GGG*  this already happens to US main services (why we are always told, do not send cash!)

So here in Hangzhou (a medium size city)were no problems at all to get letters/mails from any countries to me with address in english. yep, as LouRose and beijingjenny said, when I had them, there were always lines in Chinese that translated by post office staff. Never got lost anything value sent via DHL and sometimes with Fedex.

 

P.S.: I feel rather weird that clerks in post office who cant read PINYIN. (sorry but your spelling was wrong---not pinyon)

 

Rosey

[lele]

So here in Hangzhou (a medium size city)were no problems at all to get letters/mails from any countries to me with address in english. yep, as LouRose and beijingjenny said, when I had them, there were always lines in Chinese that translated by post office staff. Never got lost anything value sent via DHL and sometimes with Fedex.

 

P.S.: I feel rather weird that clerks in post office who cant read PINYIN. (sorry but your spelling was wrong---not pinyon)

 

Rosey

I would not consider Hangzhou a medium sized city. I consider it *big*

 

1. it is a provincial capital

 

2. it is larger than every city in the US except for NYC, LA, and Chicago. To me, that is pretty big.

 

When I say medium sized, I mean a city like Datong (1 million people in the suburban area), or Louyang. Cities that *may* or *may not* have an airport, that definitely have a train station, and that do not have any direct overseas flights (like Hangzhou).

 

you are right - i have seen "pinyin". but I have also seen "pinyon". I think it depends on how it is translated! However, I will gladly use pinyin from now on. And it is not just clerks. On the *train* from Kunming to Chengdu, not a single officer or attendant could read pinyin. it made filling out my forms tough.