Home › Shanghai Guides › Sending luggage from China
Channel 1 — International air courier (DHL / FedEx / UPS / EMS / SF)
Fast (days, not weeks), door-to-door, fully tracked. Priced by chargeable weight — whichever is greater, actual weight or volumetric weight — with a first-weight base fee plus a per-kg rate for each additional half-kilo. That pricing structure has a practical consequence: small and dense ships cheap, big and light ships expensive. A box of clothes costs more than its weight suggests; a box of books ships more or less by the scale. Air courier is the right answer for documents, electronics, gifts, and anything where waiting weeks costs you more than the price gap.
Channel 2 — Consolidated sea freight (海运集运)
The bulk channel, and the one most overseas Chinese eventually discover. Consolidators collect parcels from sellers and individuals into shared containers; you pay a much lower per-kg rate and wait weeks for port-to-port plus local delivery. Rules of thumb that hold up: below ~20 kg the courier-vs-sea gap rarely justifies the wait; above it, sea wins on price decisively. Sea freight is also the channel with the widest tolerance for things air courier refuses — but the same export prohibitions apply, and slow boats mean a problem found mid-route costs you a month, not a day.
Channel 3 — Checking it in as luggage (or shipping it as unaccompanied baggage)
If you're flying anyway, extra checked bags priced by the airline are often cheaper per kg than any courier. The unaccompanied-baggage route (separately shipped luggage declared against your own passenger manifest) exists too, and can carry items couriers refuse — but it ties the shipment to your own travel documents and timeline, and the paperwork happens at both ends. Worth it for a whole suitcase of off-season clothes; overkill for one box.
What can't go in the box
- Power banks and loose lithium batteries — the single most confiscated category. Built-in batteries in devices are usually fine; spares are not.
- Flammables and pressurized items — perfume, nail polish, alcohol, aerosols, lighters.
- Fresh food and most meat products — and note that what your destination country bans (dried meats, seeds, dairy) differs from what China restricts on exit.
- Anything you can't describe on the declaration — vague labels like "gifts" invite inspection; honest, specific descriptions sail through.
China's export-side rules on personal postal articles are published by China Customs; your import-side rules (duty thresholds, restricted categories) come from your own customs authority — check both, because the box has to pass both ends.
Packing and paperwork that actually matter
- Declare real values. Undervaluation to dodge duty is how parcels end up held or taxed at penalty rates.
- Density is money. Consolidators charge by weight tiers — one 25 kg box beats three 8 kg boxes on the same shelf.
- Photograph contents before sealing. If a claim ever happens, your evidence exists at packing time, not from memory.
- Keep the tracking and the receipt. For insurance claims and for your own duty questions at the far end.
When there's no one in Shanghai to hand the box to
Every channel above starts the same way: something has to be bought, collected, packed, and handed to a counter in Shanghai. If you're abroad, that's the part we do — our errand service receives your parcels at a Shanghai address, inspects and photographs contents on request, consolidates taobao orders into fewer boxes, and hands them to the courier or consolidator with the paperwork filled properly. You get photo proof at every step, and payments are staged against receipts — never a lump sum upfront. The mechanism is on the Trust & Safety page.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to send a box from China to another country?
Above roughly 20 kg, consolidated sea freight usually wins by a wide margin — weeks of transit instead of days. Small, urgent, or high-value items go by air courier. One well-packed dense box beats several light ones under tiered pricing.
What items cannot be shipped out of China by courier?
Power banks and spare lithium batteries, flammables and aerosols, fresh food, and anything restricted at either end. Couriers screen at acceptance; undeclared items can be confiscated mid-route.
Will I pay import duty on a parcel from China?
Depends on your country's de-minimis threshold and how the parcel is declared. Check your customs authority's published rules, declare honestly, and keep the invoice — that's the whole game.
Can I ship my winter clothes instead of paying for extra checked bags?
If you're flying soon, price both: airline extra-bag fees are often competitive for one or two bags, while sea consolidation wins when it's several boxes or no flight date at all. Unaccompanied baggage declared against your ticket sits in between.
A box to send? Start with a photo of what's going in it.
We'll tell you which channel fits, what it can't include, and what it'll take — then pack, declare, and ship it with proof at every step. We reply the same business day in business hours.
Start a shipment