Hey China Post,

I have a parcel due to arrive to Cambodia from China. My tracking number worked and the parcel is in transit when the tracking was last updated on October 20, 2015, but now when I enter the tracking number RI618443898CN it says RI618443898CN is invalid number! China Post has not received this parcel. Where is my parcel? Has it arrived in Cambodia? Any help is much appreciated.

Quote from pasazernagape on October 31, 2015, 11:55
I have a question about a parcel from China to Poland . The parcel number is RJ624791384CN. The last place where the parcel was is Shanghai. Where is the parcel now? On the way to Poland or in China 😉

Your item did finally leave Shanghai on 23-Oct. It is enroute to Poland; we can't know its exact location, but it is in transit between the two countries, as it were.

Why parcels from China to Poland from the same seller if they are transported through Beijing are in Warsaw in Poland after 3-4 days and when they are transported by Shanghai are in Poland after many weeks. Why parcel after information “package sent” in Shanghai 19/10/15 was still in Shanghai 23/10/15 also 5 days later?

These are excellent questions. 😀

I am hazarding a bit of a guess, but I'm betting that the answer to the first question has to do with way that air mail parcels are routed, and the way postal services buy airline space. The two possibilities that occur to me are:

1) The routing from Beijing to Warsaw may be fairly direct, only involving 1 or 2 flights, while the routing from Shanghai to Warsaw probably involves more connections and a greater chance of delays.
2) Postal services usually have a "standing order" for a fixed amount of space on a certain flight (or flights) every day. It is possible that China Post has a lot of capacity on their Beijing → Warsaw routing, but very little on their Shanghai → Warsaw routing...so it takes longer for an item leaving from Shanghai to get airline space and get under way.

Why parcel after information “package sent” in Shanghai 19/10/15 was still in Shanghai 23/10/15 also 5 days later?

So, I will put it out there first of all that I don't speak Chinese, but: I think the confusion lies in two different tracking status lines that mean different things but when translated often end up being similar or the same.

Here are the last few entries of your item and how I would interpret them:

2015-10-20 06:47 上海浦东, 到达 ⇒ Shanghai Pudong (Int'l Airport): Arrival
2015-10-20 06:53 上海浦东, 离开交航 ⇒ Shanghai Pudong (Int'l Airport): Leave Air Terminal/Air Exchange
2015-10-23 16:43 上海, 启运 ⇒ Shanghai: Departure

I could be out to lunch on 交航, but I think that middle line means that the item has left the airport terminal, or the airline handoff point, not the airport itself...and the last line means that the item has actually got onto a plane and departed.

If you want to know more about how international airmail works in general, these two FAQ entries may interest you. ^_^

How does the international mail system work? How is mail routed from one country to another?

I can fly to China in 24 hours! Why does a package take weeks?