A Trip to the Post Office...Simple, Right?

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We had bought some gifts in India for our families which we needed to ship home. But knew this was no adventure to do on our own. While we have had plenty of time since we returned from our trip but we needed the help of a Chinese person to aid us on our big, bad voyage to China Post.

School will begin on Monday, February 20th so I knew the students would be returning to school any day. I had Pete text his former student, Ash, who Pete taught during Fall 2010 term at Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic (WXY for short) to see when he would be returning to school so he could help us out. Ash, loved hanging out with us while we lived here before and was always a great help, even though he was new to Hangzhou himself. Ash's hometown is Wenzhou, another major city in our province but is about 4.5 hours southeast of Hangzhou. Ash told us he was returning to Hangzhou on Thursday evening and could help us on our China Post mission on Friday morning.

Ash arrived to our apartment around 11:45am; Pete and Ash determined the nearest China Post was actually near our old apartment on Baochu Bei Lu. I couldn't believe this since it was a 15 minute cab ride away but that is what Google Maps said, so we ventured out to get a cab. We knew there were other mail services outside our campus gate like EMS (China's version of DHL or UPS) but they cost double or triple the cost of China Post.

Once we arrived at the address I knew exactly which building it was, as we walked past it many of times living in that neighborhood. It was on the way from our old apartment to the fruit store I frequented last semester. Pete even bought China Post boxes there to help us move in December.

We entered the building as it said China Post and EMS. All the employees had EMS attire on and no sign of China Post anywhere. (EMS is blue and orange while China Post is green and yellow, reminds me of John Deere) Ash proceeded to ask the employees "Where is the China Post counter?" in Chinese of course. Me and my limited Chinese understood their response "Not here you need to go to the intersection, turn right, go to Jiaogong St and you will see it."

Damn, Google Maps failed us and now we have to walk. Even though it isn't far the blocks in China are massive, compare them to blocks on the Las Vegas strip to get a sense of the size. Ask Laura, Pete's sister, she will contend that the blocks in China are quite large. Plus, I don't ever remember seeing a China Post in that area only a China Postal Savings Bank, not to be confused with the national post office.

Off we went through our short cut we had found last term and arrived at the intersection about 15 minutes later. We looked around and spotted the China Postal Savings Bank and Ash said lets give it a try. We entered the bank and sure enough there was a counter for shipping also. SWEET! The lady at EMS didn't send us on a wild goose hunt after all.

We needed to send one box to Portland and one box to Prophetstown but I had all the items in 2 reusable bags. The employee tried to put all of our gifts into one box and she didn't quite unterstand that we needed two boxes. Once we got that situated she gave us 3 different forms to fill out. I thought 3 forms for each box. Wrong. One form was for one box and two different forms were for the other box. Silly me. (we had to tear up 2 forms as we filled them out wrong..typical China fashion)

Once Pete and I got the correct forms with the correct information filled out we then had to decide how to ship them.


• Option 1 - Express Airmail 1 week, we already knew we didn't want this due to the high cost
• Option 2 - Airmail 2 weeks
• Option 3 - Sail, you guessed it on a ship back to the US 1 month


I told the lady to weigh each box and tell us the price of Option 2 & 3. Don't kid yourself I actually had Ash ask the woman but he translated for me. We decided on Option 2 for the box going to Prophetstown as it was smaller and Option 3 for the box going to Portland, as we also sent back items that we purchased for ourselves but don't need here in China. (Mom expect a box around March 2nd and Georgianna expect a box around March 17th)

It was a success. Even though the price of shipping has gone up dramatically since we shipped items back to the US in 2010, but then again what hasn't gone up in price here in China. I am starting to feel my age as I find myself saying "Remember when such and such was this price"

It was past our lunch time when we left the post office and Pete wanted to eat at this restaurant at the corner called Good Food. We had never eaten there before and after walking in there was probably a good reason why. It was cafeteria style, which is common in China, and it was 1:30pm. Chinese usally eat lunch between 11am and noon. All the food was picked over and looked like it has been sitting out awhile. No way was I going to eat this food and put myself through the touture of CB (inside joke). I advised Pete of my thoughts and we decided to walk down to Starbucks to enjoy a tasty sandwich.

When we arrived at Starbucks the line was quite long but moved quickly. We offered to buy Ash anything he wanted as a treat but he passed on our offer. I guess he doens't like to eat Starbucks which is fine but I have found many of my former students think it is quite "fashionable or cool" to hang out at Starbucks.

Ash shared with us his thoughts about Starbucks while Pete and I sat and ate. He didn't like Starbucks because it is "just a place Chinese can show off how much money they have" Pete and I agreed with Ash as Starbucks is not cheap at all, even buy US standards. Locals play on their Apple products (ie IPhone, Macbook Air, IPad, ITouch) and hang out to flaunt their status. Ash did share that he enjoys seeing all the beautiful female customers as they are dressed very nice when at Starbucks.

It reminded me of why China annoys me at times because I feel like I am sitting on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with people that just worry about the material things in life. Moving to China made me realize how unimportant those material things truly are. I sold my car and almost everything I owned in San Diego to move to China, yes, I did keep somethings in IL and OR but mostly it was sold as it was just "stuff".

When I travel to countries around Asia, including parts of China where people can't afford a roof over their head, clothes on their back or food to eat Starbucks seems over the top. I believe the cheapest coffee drink is 17RMB=$2.70 which isn't cheap to us either. China is changing and not everyone is accepting of the new ways of the "Have's and Have Nots" Bringing in the New Year of 2012, China for the first time in history has more citizens living in urban areas than rurual areas a big shift for the most populated country in the world.



*Ash did get a brand new IPhone 4S from his father for Chinese New Year and wants to show us "his" new flat next weekend. His parents bought a condo in Hangzhou but had to put it is Ash's name due to the new home buying regulations in China. Ash did say he didn't consider it his, since he didn't buy it with his money. Great guy with a good head on his shoulders.

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