Recently a good friend of mine (let’s call him Bob) accepted a position in China which requires him to move to Beijing. The logistics of making this move, although a bit daunting, seemed to be quite manageable. With the assistance of his employer in China, all the documents necessary to support his application for a work permit were collected and submitted with the work permit application to the proper authorities. An international shipping company was retained to ship his household goods to China in advance of Bob’s arrival in China, and travel plans were made after researching the best available air fares. All Bob had to do was wait for his work permit to be issued.
As planned, Bob’s household goods arrived in China and they now await his arrival. Chinese customs laws dictate that the goods will only be released to their sender after he/she is in country and the customs officials can inspect his/her passport. After his household goods arrived in China, Chinese customs officials began to ask questions about what the boxes of household goods contained, and especially about the books that were a part of the shipment.
The shipping company Bob hired to get his household goods to China did make a general inventory of what was being shipped, i.e. items of clothing, dishes, electronics such as cd’s players, some dvd’s, computers and so forth before the shipment. The inventory also showed that books (in general) were contained in 3 of the boxes. No mention was made of the exact number of books or their titles. The shipping company simply fit the books into the boxes where space allowed. The boxes were sealed and no further thought was given to them. They were just a few books, ten or so Bob used for reference; biographies, autobiographies and language dictionaries. Nothing even remotely controversial or overtly politically sensitive in nature. In fact, Bob had net yet even read 2 or 3 of these books. Nevertheless, upon arrival of the books in China, customs officials had questions about them and Bob received an e-mail message from the shipping agent in China.
The shipping agent prefaced her first e-mail to Bob by explaining that Chinese customs officials were more sensitive at this point in time to which books were being brought into China. So even though it was unusual to have to do so, Bob was asked to provide the number of books shipped, their titles and their authors. Not having kept a list of any kind of the books he shipped, Bob explained to the shipping agent that he would have to rely on his inexact memory of the books he shipped and that all he could do was to provide a list to the best of his recall. The shipping agent then told Bob in her reply e-mail that Bob should do his best to provide the information requested because failing to do so would very well lead the customs officials to ask even more questions. Accordingly, Bob did his best to make a list of book titles and authors and sent them to the shipping agent. Shortly after that a reply message arrived from the agent. The customs officials wanted more information from Bob about the books.
The customs officials now wanted to know the name of the publisher of each book, the year published and what each book was about. To update the list Bob had already provided, Bob turned to the internet to seek out the requested information. Had he anticipated the unexpected questions from Chinese customs he would have made a record of this information before his household goods were shipped and herein lies the lesson to be gleaned from this blog posting. China is the destination for an increasing number of business people from all over the world. After providing Chinese customs with all of the information they requested (so far anyway) no further questions have been asked. Once Bob finally gets to China and customs officials have the opportunity to inspect his boxes if they desire a few more questions and concerns may come up, or not. In any event, learn from Bob’s experience and keep a detailed inventory of what you are shipping. While books seem to have been the main focus of attention for Chinese customs, they also showed some interest in the number of dvd’s Bob shipped, and he was required to fill out a form declaring what kind and how many electronic devices such as television sets, computers, cd/dvd players, etc. were included in Bob’s shipment. Learn from Bob’s experience, anticipate the unexpected, and be prepared to deal with it. This should at least help to minimize any difficulties you may encounter when you relocate to China.
– LEX SMITH