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Every registered item gets an identifier following the S10 standard of the Universal Postal Union: thirteen characters, two letters, nine digits, then the country code. A registered air mail number starts with R and ends with CN. Small packets may also start with P or V. Large packages start with CP, China Express with CT, and ordinary unregistered packets with U — or nine bare digits.

Registered mail costs a little more but is scanned at transit points, so it can be followed the whole way. Unregistered mail is only visible while it is still inside China; once it is exported, scanning stops, because the item was never registered at transit points. Kazakhstan's KazPost is the well-known exception.

Compensation follows the same line: a registered parcel confirmed lost can be claimed against, usually for two or three times the shipping charge, minus the registration fee. Ordinary mail carries no compensation at all.

Small Packet — up to 2 kg, combined dimensions under 90 cm and no side over 60 cm. The cheapest option that still reaches almost anywhere with a post office.

Large Package — items above 2 kg, up to 20, 30 or 40 kg depending on destination. Slower than express, considerably cheaper.

EMS and China Express — priority handling through customs and airlines, documents and goods, faster and more expensive than ordinary post.

Each of these travels one of three ways: by air, Surface Air Lifted, or purely by surface. Air is the common choice for marketplace orders.

Air parcel: 5–10 days to neighbouring countries, 7–15 days to Europe and North America, 7–30 days elsewhere. SAL: 15–20 days. Surface: 40–70 days, sometimes stretching past two months. In peak season, double or triple those figures. Weather, customs inspections, an incomplete address or a busy departure port all add time.

Collection — the post office has the item. Dispatching — it left the local office for the export city. Opening — it reached a processing centre, or the sack containing it was opened for a customs check; your parcel itself is not opened. Departure from outward office of exchange — it is ready to fly out. Arrival at inward office of exchange — it landed in the destination country. Airport codes appear often: PVG Shanghai Pudong, PEK Beijing Capital, CAN Guangzhou Baiyun, FOC Fuzhou Changle.

Once an item is handed to customs or an airline, China Post no longer controls it and cannot see where it is until the next postal union member scans it. That gap is normally two to four weeks, longer in rush season, and it looks alarming while it lasts. If the destination country does not report scans back, the status can stay frozen permanently even though the parcel arrives.

A rejected safety or customs check usually means a restricted item — batteries, phones, speakers — or a machine misreading something harmless like a phone case. Misreads get resubmitted, sometimes several times, and the parcel still arrives, badly delayed.

No records at all: check the digits first, then wait a day or two for the system to catch up. Stuck in one place for more than ten days: contact the local carrier — we only mirror what operators publish and cannot move a parcel. Marked delivered but nothing arrived: check with neighbours and the local depot, then ask the delivering carrier who signed. Failed delivery usually means the item waits about two weeks at the office before being returned to the sender.

Addresses generally cannot be changed once an item is posted; the practical route is to wait until it reaches the destination country and speak to the local carrier.