How long does it take for a packet sent out from London to reach me here in Hunan?

[Kenny同志]

The packet is regular post and was not sent registered delivery. Does anyone have experience with this?

[anonymoose]

I've found postage to and from China to be very variable, though I have more experience with sending things out of China. Things can arrive in the UK less than two weeks from China, but I've also sent things registered that still haven't arrived more than 6 weeks later.

I think it depends on what the item is. Packages may be held up in customs. It also depends on what language the address is written in, because if it is in English, someone will have to translate it, and that will obviously hold it up too.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for your reply, Anonymoose. It's a document. Do you think they would hold it up? As regards the address, it's in English pinyin.

Edit: What was I thinking! I meant to say the address was in pinyin. I have no idea how I ended up typing the word English.

[roddy]

A document should come right through. I'd imagine anywhere between one and two weeks. I don't think addresses are usually a problem, as they're largely pinyin and a zip code.

[anonymoose]

Pinyin, yes, but whenever I've had something sent from abroad with the address in English or pinyin, it has arrived with Chinese characters added to it. Somebody somewhere must be sitting there adding them. Items with the address in Chinese characters seem to arrive faster, but that's with my very small sample size and dodgy memory.

[roddy]

Yep, I meant that sticking the characters on is a lot easier if it's in pinyin - ie, something addressed to a guoji xuexiao might be a bit more reliable than to an international school.

[Kenny同志]

謝謝二位。

My address on the envelope is in pinyin so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I shall call the local post office one or two days later to see if the packet has arrived or not.

[PBolchover]

In my experience, it takes around 3 weeks for regular post from the UK to Beijing.

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for sharing your experience, PBolchover. I appreciate it.