Oh So That's Where Your Missing Mail Goes

Over the past decade or so of living in China I've learned that if you really need to get something from Point A to Point B, don't count on the China Post to get it there.

When parcels went missing in transit, I usually just chalked it up to complicated inter-country logistics or perhaps poor penmanship: I often wondered if local postal employees could read my English chicken-scratchings or my American relatives' mangled attempts at ridiculously long Pinyin romanizations or even worse, Chinese characters.
 

Now it seems we know where at least some of these dead letters go: they are sold to passers-by in streetside "mystery package" sales in Beijing suburbs.
 

The Nanfang Daily had a post go viral on Weibo Thursday purporting to show the sale of undelivered international mail on a streetside in Langfang, south of Beijing and west of Tianjin. According to the report, most of them were unclaimed international parcels sent from Beijing to the US, Russia, and Ukraine.
 

Marketwatch cited Chinese news reports saying that the packages had "postmark dates mostly from November and December" and were being sold for around RMB 10 each. Buyers had to pay before opening the packages, the Marketwatch report added.

So if your relatives disowned you because they never got that Christmas card, or that care package that mom sent somehow failed to land on your Beijing doorstep, you can at least rest easy knowing that at least those holiday sentiments perhaps lit up the heart of some Hebei mystery shopper.

What is supposed to happen to dead letters? Marketwatch reports that Chinese regulations call for the undeliverable mail to be held for six months and then be destroyed "under the supervision of postal administrators."

The Beijing Postal Administration stated it is taking the matter very seriously.

Images: Google Maps, Nanfang Daily, Karmabows

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What manner of fu$&ery is this? *wacko*

This morning's Beijing News said the parcels were originally sold at a wholesale market in Shunyi, slightly northwest of the airport

 

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And then there's this:

(ECNS) – The Beijing postal authority says it is not responsible for the appearance or sale of undelivered international express parcels on a street market in Hebei province.

The Beijing Municipal Postal Administration said on Friday that it had found nothing out of the ordinary with the way it had shipped parcels from Beijing to a number of foreign countries.

The parcels were returned according to normal procedures, and they were lost after they reached their original mailers, the Beijing News reported, citing a notice from the administration.

The administration pledged to further investigate and punish companies involved in illegal handling of international deliveries.

The parcels from Beijing to Russia, Ukraine and the US were for sale on the streets in Bazhou, a city in North China's Hebei province.

One Hebei netizen said that nearly every day there are vendors selling international express parcels for 10 yuan ($1.5). Buyers are asked to pay first and then open their packages.

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20