China Travel Tips

Despite popular and advanced communication means such as the Internet and cell phones, the postal services in China is still playing an important role in Chinese people’s daily life. The official postal service of China is China Post, which is operated by the State Postal Bureau of the People’s Republic of China.

Yes, post office can be easily found in China, especially in cities.

The business hours of the post office in China are from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. throughout the week.

You can buy envelopes and stamps in any post offices. An envelope is about CNY 0.1 to CNY 0.2 and the price of a stamp is based on its par value.

There is a little difference between the format of a Chinese envelope and that of a foreign one. Hereunder are some instructions for you to address a Chinese envelop correctly:
• Write the zip code of the addressee on the left front.
 

• The addressee’s detailed address and name should be placed in the middle part. Different from Western countries, the sequence of the Chinese address is from country, province, city, district, street, number and name. If you are unable to write Chinese characters, you can write the address in pinyin.
 

• On the right bottom is the return address, namely the sender’s address including name and zip code. However it can be omitted except that you want a reply from the addressee.
 

• Stamp with appropriate value should be firmly stuck on the envelope.
 

• Writing an envelope in red ink is not allowed.

Mailing a domestic letter in China is cheap and the price is on the basis of the weight of your letter and the delivering distance.
 

For letter less than 100g, CNY 0.6 is charged for each 20g if the letter is sent in the same city and CNY 0.8 between cities. For letter over 200g, CNY 1.2 more has to be paid for letters delivered in the same city and CNY 2.0 between cities. For registered letter, which is much faster than normal one, CNY 3.0 is added for each mail as the registration fee.

The delivery time varies according to the distance and generally it takes 5 to 7 days to deliver a domestic mail by surface.

The cost is different based on the delivering method you choose and the most expensive one is via airmail (CNY 4.5 for each card).

Basically the best way to mail an urgent letter is through Express Mail Service (EMS). It only takes 3 days for the letter successfully delivered. In addition, you can call 24-hour hot line of EMS 11185 to have your letter mailed without going to the post office and provided with your address, its staff will pick your letter at your home.