Booked at our HSR Layout counter and collected from your door — call 9164995001.
We book mainland China through DTDC's international network. There is no published card rate for China the way there is for our domestic lanes, so we do not put a per-kilo figure on this page: the shipment is quoted per consignment once we know the destination city, the billed weight and exactly what is inside. Mainland China is also the destination where paperwork, not price, decides whether the parcel arrives — so most of this page is about that.
Mainland China runs a real-name system on inbound parcels. Customs expects the
consignee to be identifiable — a Chinese national ID number for a personal parcel,
or the company’s registration / tax number for anything going to a business. If you
cannot get that number from the person receiving the parcel, do not book the
shipment: it will sit at the port of entry until someone produces it, and the
default outcome is a return at your cost.
The second thing that stops parcels is printed and recorded matter. China
regulates imported books, magazines, printed material and media far more tightly
than most destinations, and content touching politics, religion or contested
borders is routinely seized. This includes maps. An ordinary academic textbook or
a novel is not a problem; anything with a political or religious character is, and
we will tell you so rather than book it and hope.
Used and second-hand goods are broadly restricted as imports. Sending a
well-meant box of your own worn clothes or an old laptop to a relative is one of
the more common ways a China parcel goes wrong.
On food, only sealed, factory-packed dry items with a printed ingredient list
have a sensible chance. Meat and meat-derived products, dairy, eggs, fresh produce,
seeds and plants are prohibited. Home-made sweets, anything moist, and anything
without a label are not worth attempting.
Duty and import tax are assessed in China and are payable by the recipient, not
by you at our counter. We cannot pre-pay them and we will not guess at them — the
figure depends on category and declared value, and any number we invented here
would be wrong for your shipment.
Declare honestly and itemise. A single line reading “gift” on an invoice is the
slowest possible way through Chinese customs. A list — three cotton shirts, one
sealed 500 g packet of coffee powder, two books — with a realistic value against
each line moves considerably faster.
Consignee identity: Chinese national ID number, or company registration / tax number for B2B — mandatory
Paperwork we prepare: Itemised invoice, KYC for the sender, accurate contents declaration
Duty and import tax: Assessed in China, paid by the recipient — we cannot pre-pay or estimate it
Commercial exports: An IEC is needed for commercial exports; personal gifts and samples do not need one
Price: Worked out per consignment from destination, weight and contents — we hold no China rate card
What travels
What we will and will not book to China
Two lists are at work: what DTDC accepts out of India, and what China admits. An item has to satisfy both.
Allowed
Documents — contracts, transcripts, certificates
New clothing and textiles
Factory-sealed dry food carrying a printed ingredient list
Ordinary academic and literary books
Trade samples addressed to a company holding a tax number
Restricted / prohibited
Printed or recorded matter of a political or religious character, and any map
Used and second-hand goods across most categories
Meat, dairy, eggs, fresh produce, seeds and plants
Replica and counterfeit branded goods
Anything that pours or sprays — oil, ghee, syrup, gel, perfume, aerosol — refused on every route we book
Currency, bullion and jewellery; loose lithium cells; pressurised containers
Unsure about one item in the box? Call before you seal it — 9164995001. Two minutes on the phone beats a return from Shanghai.
What goes on this lane
The three kinds of China shipment we see
Business samples to a registered company
Small hardware, components and product samples going to a Chinese company address. These clear most predictably because the consignee has a registration number and a person whose job it is to receive the parcel. Give us the company name, the tax number and a contact who speaks to their customs broker.
Documents
Signed contracts, degree certificates, notarised papers. The lightest and simplest China shipment there is — nothing to value, nothing to inspect. The consignee ID requirement still applies.
Family parcels to students and expatriates
Clothes, sealed dry food, books going to someone studying or working in China. This is where the restricted list matters most: the contents that feel most natural to send — home-made sweets, worn clothes, a religious book — are exactly the ones China stops.
Bangalore → China
Questions we get on this route
What does it cost to send a parcel to China?
We quote it per consignment. Our domestic pages reproduce a published DTDC card exactly; no such card exists for China, so a per-kilo figure here would be a guess. Give us the city, the weight and the contents, and you get a real number the same day.
Why do you need the recipient's Chinese ID number?
Because Chinese customs runs a real-name system on inbound parcels and will not release a shipment without it. For a business consignee it is the company registration or tax number instead. We ask at booking rather than after the parcel is already in the network.
How long will it take?
We do not publish a transit figure for China, because the part that varies most — clearance — is not something we or DTDC control. The air leg is predictable; the paperwork check at the other end is not. We would rather say that than print a number you could hold us to.
Can I send mithai or namkeen?
Only factory-sealed dry items with a printed ingredient list stand a real chance. Home-made, moist, milk-based or unlabelled food should stay in Bangalore. Nothing liquid goes on any route we book, ghee included.
Do you ship to Hong Kong and Macau?
Yes, but they are separate customs territories with entirely different rules — Hong Kong in particular is a free port. A Hong Kong shipment is booked and quoted on its own, never as an extension of a mainland consignment. See our Hong Kong page.
Which carrier is it booked on?
DTDC. We are an authorised DTDC booking partner, your shipment travels on a genuine DTDC air waybill through DTDC's overseas network, and we make no claim to relationships with any other international carrier.