4- Deliveries

I’ve got to say, ordering online and receiving your delivery (or kuaidi as is known in China) is almost a pleasure. Vastly more efficient than the UK and something I will surely miss when I return home.

Firstly the delivery time is on average 2 – 3 days, maximum of 5 days if its coming from the other side of China, but then again considering how large China is that's really quite impressive.

Secondly once arrived at its destination the delivery person won’t just knock once and leave an annoying red card saying ‘Sorry we missed you!’ No certainly not. Here in China the deliverer sends you a handy text with parcel number, location, time they will be leaving and their phone number just in case. Here's an example:

Of course.. being able to read Chinese is a necessity!

These texts are usually sent out in the morning and then we have the whole day to leisurely go to the collection point and collect our parcels whenever we want. Be warned though, the collection points are not quite what you would think. The parcels in question will all be lying on the floor in some kind of order unbeknown to the receiver and you need to fight your way past all the Chinese students who clearly have the advantage of speaking fluent Chinese and so can quite easily cut over you as you mumble your number in broken Chinese to the delivery guy.

Quite an ingenious system actually, and in actual fact they have changed this system as of late with a brand new building and facilities that I will go into on a different post. 

As always, any questions let me know!