Shipping belongings home from China

[mark1888]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of shipping their things home from China. I'm leaving in a few months and am planning to do some travelling beforehand. This means it will be impossible for me to carry around all the crap I have accumulated over my time here. Does anyone know of the cheapest way to do this? Time is not really that important as I'll be travelling for a few months, cost is most important. I'll be shipping to Ireland.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[Junior]

Ask at the post office. I shipped stuff back to Australia by post for pretty cheap - if you do it by boat and not by air it takes a little longer but much cheaper. Of course Australia is much easier to access from China by boat than Ireland is so maybe you wont be so lucky...

[mark1888]

Thanks Junior,

Would you mind giving me an idea of the price and the amount of stuff you sent.

[Tsunku]

Took my friend to the post office yesterday and she shipped about 11 kilos of stuff back to the United States (overland, the cheapest, slowest option) and it cost just over 300RMB, which we both considered kinda steep. Still, better than lugging it around or paying extra luggage fees on the flight back I guess.

[liuzhou]

If you are lucky, surface mail sometimes get sent airmail anyway - at no extra cost.

I once sent two parcels (posted at the same time in the same post office) to England. One arrived 10 days later. the other took three months.

Luckily there was someone there to receive the first one. I was still flat on my back on a Thai beach.

[etcetera24]

Follow-up question: any customs issues when items arrived at their destination? Specifically, did anyone have to pay extra duties etc. when they picked up their package (I realize this varies by country)?

I need to send a small box of books on a slow boat from China and would prefer to avoid the financial wrath of customs inspectors - even though, as I understand it, they shouldn't be taxed because they are all used and for personal use.

[roddy]

If they're your own possessions, for personal use, then you should have no problem at all. Worst case scenario is they open it up to check it actually contains what is on the label, and discover all the dvds you hid between the pages.

[doumeizhen]

Which of course is not a terribly huge problem if you ship one package with the cases, and another with the cds in a carrying-case. You may look like you are a couch potatoe, but you will raise no suspicion of capitalist intent (or whatever else the opposite of private use is).

I shipped home (to the US) about 6 boxes, and all of them made it back in the specified time, 4-6 weeks I think, and there was no mention of any taxes. Books, movies, music, trinkets. The only comment I ever got was when I was shipping my brothers rock collection (yes, rock collection). The woman who checked it at the post-office (they might do this so don't tape it beforehand) asked me what the hell I was doing, and it was searched, naturally, but that is all.