Mainland China Addresses

When sending to a buyer in Mainland China I write out the address in English, but I know in years past on feebay there have been delivery problems, suspected cause that the local delivery postperson can not read western writing. One possible solution mentioned on the feebay forums was to ask the buyer in China to send a jpg of the address in Chinese Characters that could be converted into a mailing label on the envelope in addition to the Western Address. Would it be possible for such a request for address in Chinese characters to be added to invoices going to mainland China? China has the potential to be a huge market for stamps and Hipstamp.

Comments

  • 8 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Dennis, the following is copied from USPS and it also states that these are Chinese regulations not US. Not sure if this applies in Canada.

    Restrictions:

    The importation of personal articles is limited to those intended for personal use and imported in reasonable quantities. The value of the items contained in each shipment must not exceed RMB (renminbi) 100 yuan and the total value of the shipment received annually by each family may not exceed RMB (renminbi) 800 yuan. However, the following articles are admitted in the quantities/values indicated:
    Description of Articles Qty. or Value per Item Comment
    1. Pocket electronic calculator 1 per year The addressee must submit a prior request to Customs.
    2. Magnetic tape 5 cassettes
    3. Cotton or synthetic fabric 10-1/4 yd (10 m) Width must not exceed 50 inches (130 cm).
    4. Medicines or materials used in Chinese medicine RMB 40 yuan
    5. Philatelic stamps 100 stamps
    Observations
    Articles that do not meet the requirements mentioned above will be returned to origin or confiscated in accordance with their internal laws.
  • Jeri - If they are Chinese regulations they would also apply to mailings from Canada. I would think that a Dominica set that sold for 10.95 would qualify. The set is going out in my normal #10 envelope. nicely wrapped inside a print pricelist so nosy customs inspectors or censors will see a pricelist not a stamp unless they delve deeply into the letter..

    Thee has been some talk in Canada about a free trade agreement with mainland China but I am not sure if this has been concluded. I do believe that the US President stopped US involvement with a China free trade agreement so there may be differences in regulations between Canada and the US.
  • The Dominica set should be just fine.

    A few sales here and there is not a problem. It's the "repeat" sales that could cause concern. I was alerted to this regulation by my mailman after he noticed I had 4 mailings to the same Chinese customer in one month. He just said to be careful because the Chinese are very strict about imports and would most likely notice repeated mailings.This could lead to confiscated goods.



  • Back before Stampwants, sometime in the late 1990's or early 2000's I had a Mainland China customer buying mint Norway. He was a repeat customer and ordered over about an 18th month period then stopped.

    I don't get around to shows and stores as much as I used to, but there was a lot of demand for mainland China at one point, and I'm guessing that a lot of that material ended up back in mainland China - just like some of the European & GB buyers at shows would liberate a lot of material from North American dealers back in the 70"s.
  • Have shipped many stamps from Canada to mainland China and some shipments have been fairly valuable. Have used the bilingual address when I have one but so far no matter how I directed it no shipments have gone astray and I can't say that for all countries. Thanks for this useful thread Dennis.
  • I have shipped a lot of stuff to China, generally Chinese stamps, and often more than the 100 rule above.

    Because of too high a loss rate, I have forced tracking upon folks from China (and Brazil).

    This for a time slowed sales, however in the last year they've been bulking items together to make the tracking cost palatable, and interestingly under my new "rules" my sales to China in the last year have been higher than they were before I made them go trackable....
  • edited October 2017 0 LikesVote Down
    Hi Ron thank you and others for sharing. I have only shipped several small orders to China without any problems. China is an enormous market and the fastest growing area in stamps. Tracking a package at $17.50 is costly and would only make sense for a bigger order.
  • edited October 2017 0 LikesVote Down
    Hi Andrew, yep the $17.50 does normally force them to find multiple items to group together, although surprisingly I have had folks buy $14.99 items and be ok with the $17.50 shipping additional (normally all my stuff is priced at $9.99 minimum).

    I was very surprised though when my statistical analysis demonstrated that the few, very good customers I acquired in the last year who combine stuff to make the tracked palatable, far outbought the normal year's sales when I didn't force the tracked shipping and sold more smaller items to many more buyers.

    SInce selling stamps is my full time job, even if the small packs to China aren't lost, the extra hours of messages back and forth when they are slow getting there cost me time above the cost of the packages actually lost. This was more true of Brazil, as deliveries can be very very slow there...especially for my stuff which is normally going to go through customs.

    I'm interested about the comments about the growing market there, in my own experience things have weakened there in the last 5 years. The prices for better PRC are lower now than before and the "instant" sales I used to get for key items/sets don't happen hardly ever anymore. (folks buying the key stuff used to ask for it to be tracked before I forced it on them anyway)
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