By Helena Sykes,

Teacher in Shanghai (2014-2015)

 

At the end of the year you may find that you have accumulated a lot more things than you’d realised. Clothes, gifts from students and teaching materials often add up!

If you are lucky enough to have a friend or relative visiting you during the year, it may be a good idea to send some things back with them. For example, if a friend visits in March, you may want to send your heavy winter clothes home.

If you are flying directly home from China back to the UK at the end of the year, a good option is to add an extra suitcase onto your flight ticket. If you book it in advance, prices for additional baggage start at around £70, depending on the airline. Some airlines even offer it for free as part of their package to entice you to pick their company, so do consider this whilst booking.

Although this is a slight more costly way of getting things home, it is extremely secure, and you have your possessions back straight away when you arrive back in the UK.

However, if you intend to travel on the way home, the best option may be shipping. ‘Shipping’ is exactly what it says on the tin – it is the process of taking a box of your possessions, by sea, back to the UK for you, for a fee. China Post charge around £30 for a large box of your possessions. You are charged by weight not by size, so you can send a very large box for £30 if it is mostly clothing, or a smaller box for the same price if it contains heavier objects like decorations/souvenirs. Below is a photo of a box sent home by one of our teachers this year, which was sent on her last day in China in July, and arrived at her door just under two months later.

The problem with shipping, aside from the fact that it normally takes around two months, is security. It is not uncommon for things in your box to go missing. To avoid this, never put anything with any high financial or emotional worth inside. Over the last few years the security of shipping boxes has improved, but still, it would be ill advised to put anything like a laptop inside, so do take care.