I’ve searched everywhere and I’m still uncertain of the answer.
When sending postcards to China, I have been receiving both the English and Chinese version of the addresses. In every instance, the person requests I use the Chinese address so it will be delivered faster.
My question is… Can I use just the Chinese address when mailing from the USA or do I place both addresses on the card?
I’ve attempted to research this on the USPS website, and if I’m reading it correctly, I’m supposed to use both (I think). But when I’ve read through the forums, I’m getting the impression I can just use the Chinese version of the address.
Can someone please provide a definitive answer on this? I’ve sent out quite a few Chinese postcards with just the Chinese address not thinking it was an issue until I saw a recent post that made me think I sent them incorrectly.
In my limited opinion the English would be in case you want to write it yourself with a pen. Not everyone has access to a reliable printer.
In reality, USPS seems fine with the country name in English sending it on a flight there and letting the local post office deal with the non-Roman address.
There are varying opinions on this as USPS technically says addresses need to be in Latin letters, but in reality cards addressed in Chinese characters seem to arrive just fine, like @Johnk60 said. Personally, I’ve been using both and it seems to working fine.
Yep! I just print out both in small font and tape them on one above the other. I have a limited sample size as I haven’t sent much to China up until recently.
That is what I do, I use the postcrossing “Print Address” option and choose the smallest font, then I just tape the whole label to the card, including the white space and “OR” between addresses. It has worked so far without issue. Cards I mail this way are received about a week quicker than if I write the address in English.
Writing an address in Chinese will faster deliver it to the recipient. The English address only needs to state the country, so that the post office knows which country you want to send to.
As mentioned in replies above, writing/printing addresses in Chinese ONLY is completely fine, all you need is to write down the country name (P. R. China) at the bottom and the rest potion can be in Chinese characters. Usually mail exchange happens at the country level, and the rest of logistics will be taken care of by each respective postal systems.
Personally I’ve done this in many English/Spanish/Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Canada, USA, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica, Brazil, they all arrived safe and sound.
I only add the Chinese version of the address almost everytime I get a Chinese address. Every single postcard I’ve sent this way arrived quicker than the ones I sent with the English version of the address. As the others said, just make sure to include the country name in English
My friend sent a card with just the Chinese address, and it was sent back to her. She wrote P.R. China in English next to the country characters, so I’m not sure why it wasn’t delivered, since the postman could read the final main destination.
It’s very odd! I usually write the address in English because I don’t always have access to a printer, or I forget when I’m around a printer (oops). However, my travel time to China is 54 days (I’ve only sent one officially, and I cannot recall the ones I sent through forums), so maybe adding both addresses would speed it up!
China has many International Mail Exchange Station.If he does not give the city in English,It may sent to BeiJing or ShangHai，it will spend more time,usually 3-5 days,to sent the lettel to the right city in Domestic Postal System.If you write the city name in english,such as my city:ChengDu whitch has Direct mail route to US，it will save the time that spent in Domestic Postal System.And because of the Decreased mail volume，the postcode is almsot useless in China，but I think the correct postcode that dose not end as 00，is helpful to sent letter to the correct Delivery Office
