Shipping Books FROM China to the US

[liao]

I know, I could probably find all of this out in an afternoon of walking to and from the post office and other places. But, does anyone have experience with shipping to the US. What are the best options? I'll be sending at least one small box of books (I think I can fit the rest in my luggage) and would like to know if there are any tips you can pass on from your experience.

Thanks.

[Brian US]

Depending on how heavy your books are it may be pretty expensive. I've only been with a Japanese and Macao friend, but it ended up costing a few hundred kuai. Check out the prices at the post office (they will tell you the best way) and compare that to maybe checking in another bag.

The two times I have had packages sent to me from the US have ended in failure. Even with clear postage, each time the package gets lost in Beijing. It eventually makes it back to the U.S. about 1-2 months later beaten to a pulp. I know you are trying to send it to the U.S., but it seems the problem comes from the China side. Letters seem to go through just fine.

The same experience has happened to several of my American classmates.

[roddy]

I suspect the session id in the url will mean this link won't work, but try it anyway, and if it doesn't work just try the base url - it's a shipping cost calculator. It can cost a bit to send stuff, but given how cheap books are here . . .

[JenniferW]

I've not sent books to the USA, but have sent many boxes of books to the UK during 6 years of working in China - and never had any problems at all. If anything, boxes arrived in the UK earlier than the Chinese post office told me they would. Each time I opted for the cheapest type of mail service.

It's not cheap, but it was worth it for books (such as Chinese language learning materials, books for studying Chinese painting and calligraphy) not easily available in the UK, or not available at all in the UK, and for books I'd become fond of. In general, it made the books still a lot, lot cheaper than trying to buy them in the UK - and for most, I wouldn't even have been able to do that.

[tboasis7]

i guess if money is not an issue, you could go to the Beijing airport and ship them from there, im pretty sure there is some shipping companies at the airport, then you dont have to be worried about the package getting lost in Beijing

[Lu]

Have you searched other threads on this? There have been quite a few on shipping stuff home.

My experience with this is good, I shipped home a box or two twice by surface mail, and they arrived just fine, although you do have to pack very well, they are handled rather roughly. I'm not sure if China has special rates if you send only paper stuff (especially books), I know Taiwan has, and that made it even cheaper.

[abcdefg]

I know, I could probably find all of this out in an afternoon of walking to and from the post office and other places.

Or you could use the search function of this forum.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/25110-cheapest-way-to-ship-large-package-to-the-us/page__p__209788__hl__post+office__fromsearch__1#comment-209788

But to summarize my personal experience for you:

I've sent books to the US from several different parts of China, maybe a dozen times all in all. Used surface mail. They usually say it will take up to 3 months, but I've found 6 weeks to be a more usual arrival time. Nothing has gotten lost. The post office supplies a sturdy box and the clerk packs the items for you, and then binds the box with heavy shipping straps.

It helps to go to the post office off peak when they are not terribly busy. If you can’t write Chinese, take a friend who can.

So I've had very good results at a reasonable cost. I’ve found it to be less expensive than making a suitcase overweight and having to pay extra for that at airport check-in.

[liao]

Thanks everybody. I really appreciate your help with this. I did try searching on the forums, but I guess my search words were not the best and I didn't find any of this very useful information before.

Amazon.com and dangdang.com and I have become close friends while I've been here and I just realized that I have a LOT of books that I need to get back. So, 50 lbs in my luggage and rest by surface.

Thanks again.