I am located in the US and have always found it odd how cheaply
packages can be shipped to the US (usually less than $3.00, sometimes
less than $1.00) yet how expensive it is to send equivalent packages
back overseas from the US. In theory, it should cost the same going
both ways. But the amounts by which the US and Chinese mail are
subsidized seem to differ greatly, because it certainly seems to cost
more than either when shipping from other countries. Skimming The
Chinese Post website [4] I see a page talking about "The Postal
Savings Bank of China is a full-function commercial bank offering
comprehensive and convenient financial services and 37,000 saving
outlets." So perhaps the Chinese post's expenses are payed for in part
by the loans made by the "The Postal Savings Bank of China"? Can
anyone comment on this?

I did a comparison between postal costs in China, the US, and Canada.
I was surprised by the price difference for shipping inside of Canada.
Ottawa to Vancouver is a similar distance compared to New York to Los
Angeles, yet shipping with the Canada post is easily 4-5 times more
expensive. In fact inside of Canada, for whatever reason, it is
cheaper (2/3 of the cost) to send a package to China than it is to
send it from Ottawa to Vancouver.

It seems that is only marginally more expensive to send small packages
halfway around the world (from China to the US) than it is to send
packages within the United States. If one had to send lots of (small)
packages to many different countries, it seems like China is *the*
place to be.

Prices in USD.

United States Postal Office (First class international, or standard post):
* 100 gram Package, New York to Los Angeles. $2.50. [1]
* 100 gram Package, to Canada from the US. $6.91
* 100 gram Package, to China from the US. $8.88

Canada Post (Air Mail, 6"x4"x1" Package):
 * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to Vancouver. $15.09. [2]
 * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to US. $8.13. [3]
 * 100 gram Package, from Ottawa to China. $11.20

China Post (Air-Mail):
* 100 gram Packet to China/Neighboring countries from China. $2.26
* 100 gram Packet to United States/Canada/etc. from China. $2.95

[1]
* New York Postal Code: 10001
* Los Angeles Postal Code: 90001

[2]
* Ottawa Postal code: K0A 1B0
* Vancouver Postal code: V5K 0A1

[3] from Ottawa to New York or Los Angeles, both have the same price.

[4] http://english.chinapost.com.cn/

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Jason White
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