If you have bought things from Ebay, Dealextreme, Aliexpress, Alibaba, DHGate, PriceAngels, Focalprice, Lightake and so on, you might come across a tracking number issued to you by the seller from China or Hong Kong.
To track your package, this is a good website to track parcels mailed via major postal services like China Post, Hong Kong Post, Singpost, EMS, DHL, etc.
http://www.17track.net/en
However, if you are a non-native Chinese reader, you might have problems understanding the terms that shows up sometimes. For eg.
收寄局收寄, 深圳市国际大宗邮件处理中心
出口总包互封开拆
出口总包直封封发
交航
and the translation (usually via Google) churns out funny interpretations that leave you non the wiser.
Help is here.
Basically you would have difficulty understanding the tracking status from the point the supplier dispatch the goods to the postal vendor till the point in time it reaches your home country. Once it reaches your home country, the tracking updates would be provided by your home country's postal service handler and the language would likely to be in something which you can understand more easily.
Here is a brief explanation on the common terms used in tracking statuses for China outbound mail services.
Step 1
The first step is when your supplier sends it to his domestic postal vendor, you will see something like this :-
收寄局收寄,
深圳市国际大宗邮件处理中心
To understand this, there is two portions :-
收寄局收寄 means it is received by the mail handling agency or postal agency
深圳市国际大宗邮件处理中心 is the name of the local mail agency. In this case, it refers to Shenzhen. You may see other words in this second portion as it depends on which province or state your supplier ships it from. Common ports are Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing.
Step 2
Next you are likely to see a term like this : 出口总包直封封发
It basically means the item has been dispatched onward to its next destination.
Similarly, there will be some more characters behind it, indicating the port of departure.
If the goods were sent from a minor port or smaller province, it would probably head off to a major international port first. In this case you will come across the next step.
Step 3
出口总包互封开拆 literally means export total package mutual seals open (no meaning literally)
This actually means that there is an exchange taking place from the domestic port to the international port.
For example Shenzhen > Guangzhou.Usually the smaller postal players will handle the domestic transport and then it reaches the international port where it will finally leave the country towards your country.
When this interchange takes place, you will see the next tracking update as 出口总包直封封发 which simply means that it is onwards to the next destination.
This Step 2 & Step 3 could be repeated for a few cycles depending on the parcel's original dispatch location. The smaller province will take a few cycle before it reaches the major international departure port. Hence, some parcels take longer to emerge out from China compared to others.
Step 4
交航 literally means navigation.
However in postal terms, it means that it is in the midst of transportation, whether in the air or via sea to your country.
Step 5
The next status you will likely be seeing is that it has reaches your home country. And from then, you can probably track via your own postal service website for your parcel in your own language.
Hope this article helps you!
