And how does that take usually？
We have some reference guide at our post official website. It shows avia or land way is used for delivering post to any country
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And how long does that take?
In Germany there is no choice. All international mail leaves as priority (mostly air mail).
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And how long does that take usually?
Depends on the destination and how fast the postal service is there. It usually takes 1 day to reach our international mail sorting center. Germany’s postal service is very fast! But all slowed down due to Covid, less flights etc. Sending to China is on the slower end…
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Depends on the aim and the the quality and speed of the postal service at the aim. China takes always long, even before covid my cards took six to eight weeks, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter any many did not arrive at all.
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no choice for the USPS. All International mail including postcards is airmail.
I’m not aware of any domestic mail being sent on land.
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I am also curious about how much it costs to send postcards from your country to foreign countries.
In Spain you can’t choose. I assume all national mail travels by land and all international mail is airmail.
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In China,it costs five RMB by air and three and a half by ship.
Last time I sent some posctards not by ait it took so much time for them to get to their destinations that I send by air only from now on! (it’s a bit more expensive though)
I always choose 'by ship/train’s
Russian post also has these two options and by air is more expensive. But so far of what I learnt from talks with post workers, the classification air/ship is outdated and in most country replaced by priority/normal. Moreover, Russian post always confuses senders that we can’t use by ship/train to some countries, but actually it’s only concerning the parcels.
So as far as I know regular postcards/letters all go by whatever way of delivery is used (can be ship and/or planes for either of prices), and 'by air’s tariff in my experience does nothing in Russian post. Since my regular cards reach Germany in 8-9 days, the simple way seems fast enough
EDIT: Price is 52 rubles for normal, 58 rubles for by air. With amount of postcards I send these 6 rubles turn into thousands at some months 
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Your statistics might be connected by the 2019-2020 Russian post sendings speeds which were not that great in 2019, but got better in 2020, not to tariffs itself (like sending by land during overflow of sorting center and sending by air when it got better like now). Just for your information 
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The USPS ended Surface Rate mail (“Sea Mail”) many years ago. Many thousands of booksellers lost million of $$$$ in business. The cost of shipping books overseas by air is prohibitive.
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May I ask you a question，have you ever sent postcard to China？How long did it take? A girl from Crimea， Russia sent me a postcard about seven days ago. I just wonder how long does it take to arrive.
I would say anything less than a month travel shouldn’t considered long. Recent postcards with China took about 40-50 days for me to receive, mine traveled 30 days. But I live in Moscow, for tricky Crimea logistic I would add couple weeks
I believe Russian post still has special type of tariffs for sending books abroad, it’s called Мешок М [Bag M], and you can send up to 14.5 kilos with paying 240 rubles per kilo (same as with parcels), but pay 200 instead of 1000 of base rate
This type of postal matter is like from middle XX century but makes it easier to take your library with you if you are moving abroad
Thank you. 
I don’t know if I can decide… because when I mail I just put a stamp on and it goes.
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