I approached my relocation to Shanghai with a good deal of uncertainty. Being my first opportunity to live and work overseas, I hadn't formed any idea about the processes involved in going through such a transition. I approached it by looking objectively at the various items involved. Visas, work contracts, sending of goods, and finding an apartment. The more enquiries I made about these tasks, the more it seemed relatively easy to meet the paper-work and move on with the big problems of transition - finding a place to live deodorant, Tim Tams and Vegemite in Shanghai.

As we left Australia, I felt sure that there would be no problems, and that it would all go to plan.

I was mistaken. There was more than met the eye, and I found myself in a spot of bother. Well, it wasn't really just me and Lin, it was me, Lin, and my parents.

Before relocating, I had asked my parents to arrange the sending of our goods to Shanghai. I asked them to wait until we'd found an apartment and were able to supply a delivery address. While Lin & I struggled to find an apartment in our first 2 weeks in Shanghai, my parent's waited patiently before making the arrangements to get our packed & sealed boxes sent from Brisbane to Shanghai.

After our arrival, I started to look into getting a local agent to handle the matters at this end. My original choice, Jetta Express, would only deliver to the airport - and considering the distance of Pudong Airport to Jing' An, I thought a local vendor might be able to help me out. I soon came to the realisation I had opened a can of worms, and luckily so. The importation of your personal goods to China can be difficult. There's a great deal of paperwork and regulations to meet before anything can be imported into Shanghai. And part of this is detailing the entireity of your packages to Chinese Customs so they can assess if any duty needs to be paid on the items in question. This was something that we hadn't counted on, and nor had the logistics companies I had contacted in Australia informed me about. I doubt that they had known either. As more of this came to light, I contacted a few relocation and logistic companies in Shanghai for their input - and for anything between AUD$2000-3000 they said they could sort it out for me. And yes, that was without payment of any duty on items!

That's far from the AUD$900 I had been quoted back in Australia. Given I was paying for the relocation out of my own pocket (and later being reimbursed by my employer), that was a lot of money for a recent student. The cynic in me was convinced that due to the big market in expat relocations in Shanghai, I wonder if the local agent's costs were a little inflated to take into account big company payments.

With new knowledge, and finding a different logistics company in Australia to handle the shipment (Allied Pickfords who undercut their Shanghai branch by ~AUD$1000 by using TNT as a handling agent), we were able to get our belongings sent to China. But to do this, everything in the boxes was painstakingly listed by my Dad. A legendary effort that no beer shall ever repay. Even with our preparations, there were still minor problems to handle at Shanghai Customs. Normal imports to China are subject to duty, however this duty payment is subject to a once-only exemption for Z-class visa holders who are relocating to China as part of employment = me!! There was some confusion over whether I qualified for this exemption, well, not in my mind, but in Custom's and the logistic's company's interpretation. After a little rigmarole, our packages arrived at our apartment one morning. Only 4 and a half months after I arrived!

So what has this entry got to do with Karma?

Given the lengths my parents went to, I owed a great karmic debt. I thought at one stage it would come back to bite me, and indeed it did. I got an email from another Aussie who was looking to relocate to Shanghai and asked me advice regarding what I experienced in my relocation. I thought this was my karmic debt - and jumped into the depths and reaches of getting your boxes from Point A to Point B. Karma debt cancelled? Nope. Next I had to deal with RobbieM's relocation back to Brisneyland. He left Shanghai with instructions that DHL would come by and collect his belongings. They'd come to our door, pick up the goods, and that would be it. So simple. No, not in reality. Rob & I soon realised that despite it being only 1 small box, but I had to deal with uncooperative agents that don't answer your questions, that don't return your phone call, that didn't give me the correct information regarding price and pickup options, and well, you get the drift.

Lin & I ended up going to the dispatch office for DHL on Changping Lu (close by to our apartment handily enough). After finally reaching someone who was helpful, they played out the situation and told me how to go through with the dispatch of the goods. It involved taking the package to a service centre, paying cash, paying any duty, and then crossing your fingers. With this knowledge, and the helpful service at the dispatch office, RMB1800, and a number of form's filled in, Rob's box was on its way back to Australia.

Even with this, I'm sure now my karmic debt hasn't been repayed. Hence, I wrote this tome in the off-chance someone might find it useful in the future.

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