Chinese address -> Address in English

[crystak]

Say I wanted to send something to China but I only know the chinese address, written in the simplified symbols but it needs to be in english.

Can that be translated ad litteram with a translator or could someone help me translate it into english?

[renzhe]

You'll need to post it for people to help you -- this will definitely work better than trying to translate it automatically.

The street most likely can't be in "English", though, as very few streets in China have an English name. What you will likely need is the pinyin transliteration. The address is still in Chinese, only written using Latin alphabet.

[liuzhou]

Why would it have to be in "English"?

The only information your Post Office needs is the country. No one is going to read the street name til it arrives in China and any translation wil be utterly meaningless.

[renzhe]

I was thinking the same thing, but then it struck me that the original person maybe can't write Chinese characters well (or at all), in which case pinyin would probably be safer.

[crystak]

Yes, I actually meant writing the address using pinyin.

Problem is that I want to send a gift through this website and I asked them and said the address needs to be in english so I assume that's pinyin because as you said, most street names will be in Chinese.

[Lu]

Post the address here and we'll give you a transliteration (either I'll do it if I'm around or someone else will be faster). Leave out the housenumber if you're worried about privacy issues.

[cdn_in_bj]

Say I wanted to send something to China but I only know the chinese address, written in the simplified symbols but it needs to be in english.

Can that be translated ad litteram with a translator or could someone help me translate it into english?

No, do not do a word-for-word translation! It will not make sense, akin to the Engrish menus we see in some of the Chinese restaurants here.

I picked up a business card here in BJ that happened to have been translated into English word-for-word. It was incomprehensible. They actually translated the district (Fengtai) into English as well!

Anyways, your best option is to include the Chinese address along with the pinyin representation on the package.

[mr.stinky]

depends where the package is going. if you're sending to a university or someplace with

lotsa furr'ners, the postal employees should have no problem. i occasionally had things

sent to elcec in kunming using an english address with only the street name written in

pinyin. never tried shipping to my residence.

[HerrPetersen]

I guess with my current situation I can hijack this thread: I want to send a postcard to Shanghai and I have the following information:

Name of Person

上海市宝山区共和三村**号***室 *******

邮编 ******

How exactly do I organize this on the postcard, is it enough to reach the receiver (if I add a name)?

Thanks in advance

ps I guess my hanzi-writing skills are good enough to be recognized by Chinese people, so I won't have to rely on pinyin.

[HerrPetersen]

I just want to revive the thread, since I plan to send the postcard as soon as possible.

[Lu]

You don't have to write the word 邮编, just the number is enough.

When you have filled in the name and all the numbers, this information should get your postcard there allright.

Organize like this:

上海市宝山区共和三村**号***室 *******

[name of person] 收

[邮编] ******

[HerrPetersen]

Thanks, postcard will be on the way tomorrow

[kellaneym]

This thread never answered the question i dont think. I had this problem a lot when I was in shanghai and my mother wanted to send me packages. She could print off the chinese aaddress I gave her and put it on a letter or package, but this wasnt always conveneient so sometimes she would have to hand write the address. Given she has never studied chinese and couldnt dream of memorizing and writing down my address in hanzi, we had to write in in English. Transliterating the street names wasnt so much of a problem, now im more curious about which format should be used because regardless of what language you are writing the address in, the chinese postal system uses a different format than they do in the US. Its the "large to small" "small to large" problem. Should I try to write:

Shanghai City, Changning district, dingxi rd. alley 8888, lane 4, building 8, Apt # 8888

Or like we might do in the US:

building 8, lane 4, alley 8888, dingxi rd. Apt. # 8888

Changning district, Shanghai City 200080 China

Does this make sense? Id imagine using the Chinese system would make more sense since its being sent to China, but id just like to hear some other peoples experience with this. Also, China and Taiwan both seem to have some master address decoders that will translate the english address into chinese and write it on the top of your letter/package. No matter what way we had the address sent, half the time even with large mistakes, they always seemed to make it to my place!

[889]

As above, you can write the address in Chinese and show only the city and country in roman letters according to the USPS manual.

If you want to show the whole address in roman letters, here's the official format according to the Universal Postal Union:

http://www.upu.int/fileadmin/userUpload/damFileSystem/universalPostalUnion/activities/addressing/postalAddressingSystemsInMemberCountries/sheetsEn/CHN.pdf

[kellaneym]

Thanks! i think that answered it. To note, i just sent a package via fedex to shanghai and they would not allow me to write any chinese on the main shipping label, after convincing them they allowed me to attach a separate sticker with the chinese on it to the side of the box. Its just good to know both methods!

[Lu]

I don't know who the Universal Postal Union is, but I see no reason at all to swap given and family name when sending something to a Chinese person in China. That's really nonsense.

I'd write addresses small to big if I wrote them in English/pinyin, but I suspect that it will also arrive just fine if you write big to small.

[889]

The International Postal Union, in case you were to busy to Google it, is the international body that coordinates international mail practices among national post offices. They just list the address methods that China Post tells them to list. You can contact China Post if you think the method's "really nonsense."

Department of International Cooperation

China Post Group

Jia No.3 Financial Street, Xicheng District,

100808 BEIJING

P.R.CHINA

You'll probably also want to tell them you think it's "really nonsense" to translate Financial Street from 金融街.

Point is, if you're using an address to send mail -- not to ask directions, take a cab, etc. -- then it's safest to use the rules the post office itself sets out, not the ones you think would make more sense.