04-022
Last minute Chirstmas shopping
The date was 12-Dec-2023. I was about to prepare Christmas presents
for my family and friends. I should have prepared these earlier; but you know,
Christmas shopping is always last minute.
I knew what to buy: a honeycomb gift set for my mum, a pack of
Rainbow Friends building blocks for my son, and a Skibidi Toilet pencil case
for my son’s friend. Besides, I also wanted to get myself some Russian smoked
sardines and a wild honeycomb from a tree. I love nature. Getting those items
locally is either difficult or expensive. Honey is considered gourmet here. A
gift set is even more expensive. And I have never seen wild honeycomb sold
anywhere in the city. Russian food is also rare here. I may be able to find
some in local Russian specialty stores, but items sold inside are normally
marked at a higher price.
Also, toy shops here carry only large brands. Rainbow Friends and
Skibidi Toilet are YouTube creations. They are not anything like Marvel or
Lego.
Luckily, I am living in Hong Kong. And just a few kilometers north
of my home is a place called the world’s factory. I decided to get all those
items from the famous Chinese online marketplace, Taobao. But it was already
the 12th of December. Christmas is coming in less than 2 weeks. Can I manage to
get the gifts on time? Let me show you.
Taobao appThe first step is to open the Taobao app on my cellphone. The app is
available on the App Store, Google Play, and Huawei AppGallery. But the
interface is all Chinese. That means, if you want to shop there, you need to
learn the language.
Skibidi Toilet pencil caseThe first item I looked for was a Skibidi Toilet gift for my son’s
best friend in children church. Just in case you don’t know, Skibidi Toilet is
a web series of YouTube videos first uploaded in February 2023 and soon became
the most viewed YouTube channel in the US.
I found the creation to be rather
disgusting and silly but kids here love it like crazy. Since Skibidi Toilet is
not in the production lines of those large toy manufacturers yet, Taobao is the
best place to find Skibidi Toilet accessories. My son decided to buy this
Skibidi Toilet pencil case for his friend.
CNY21.8 became CNY19.8
The pencil case costs CNY21.8, which is just USD 3. I can even get a
2 Yuan discount from the seller.
Price updated
With only CNY19.8 or USD2.78, I can get my son’s friend a very
special present.
Then I looked for a gift for my son, a pack of Rainbow Friends
building blocks. Rainbow Friends is a popular horror video game in Roblox
released during the pandemic. It is not a franchise created by those big bosses
so you cannot find its toys in Toys “R” Us. I decided to buy the building
blocks from this merchant.
Rainbow Friends building blocksDepending on the model, the price ranges from CNY 39.8 to CNY81.0.
CNY 81.80 for 2 packs of building blocks
Buy more, save moreI picked these 2 and they cost me CNY 81.80. Again, the seller gave
me a 2 Yuan discount and let me settle the bill with just CNY 78.80, which is
USD 11.
Price is updated
At this point, I need to explain a little bit about logistics
infrastructures in Hong Kong. In my last post, I have already shown you how courier companies operate here. Another popular logistics service in this city
is parcel forwarding.
Parcel forwarding is nothing innovative. The first parcel forward
service can be dated back to the 18th century when innkeepers started assisting
their guests by holding and forwarding their belongings and goods. Just because
of the blossom of online shopping, parcel forwarding has become popular again.
Parcel forwarders of Hong Kong operate in a slightly different way
than their counterparts in most other countries. In most countries, parcel
forwarders merely provide their customers with an overseas address. They depend
on major international couriers to deliver the parcels to their destination.
For example, the famous parcel forwarder Forward2me operates overseas
warehouses in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Turkey. But they use FedEx, UPS,
and DHL to deliver the parcels. Sending a 1kg parcel from Germany to Hong Kong,
for example, would cost me EUR 39 at least.
However, Parcel forwarders in Hong Kong also provide their own
delivery. Without relying on those blood-sucking international big courier
companies, they deal directly with the airlines to get a cheaper flight charge.
For example, Hong Kong parcel forwarder Buyandship is only charging HKD27 per
pound from their warehouse in Italy to Hong Kong, which is around EUR6.9 per
kg. The price is 80% cheaper than that of Forward2me.
Because of the demand, many parcel forwarders have set up warehouses
in China. I mainly use two of them. One is medium-sized and called Direct Buy.
The other one is smaller and called Lixin. Direct Buy is more professional. It
does not have its own delivery team or parcel lockers. But it has a number of
cooperative stores in the city and one of them is located just a few blocks
away from my office.
Lixin is very small but it delivers everything. Because of
complicated custom declaration, most parcel forwarders do not deliver food,
batteries, liquid and powder. Lixin does deliver all of them. They have a
workaround. They simply lie. I once asked them to deliver a pack of
Surströmming to my working place and they declared the parcel to the custom as
a pair of shoes! Lixin only provides 1 pickup location, which is their main
office. But their office is very far away. Luckily, they also have a very small
delivery team which covers commercial buildings in the city center. And it
happens that my office is in the city center.
Shipment charges are CNY1000 per package
for Hong Kong addresses
Now, I am going to place the order for those toys. I have set my
office address as the default on the Taobao app. At the checkout, the total
amount is CNY 2095.95! That is crazy! The reason is, most Taobao merchants do
not want to bother with international shipment. Hong Kong is a part of China
but when it comes to courier services, it is considered as overseas delivery.
So they simply marked up the international shipment cost to a ridiculous
amount.
I changed the delivery address to Direct Buy
I changed the delivery address to the warehouse of Direct Buy. Now,
the amount finally makes sense. The total amount is now CNY97.95.
Now, it makes more sense!
Various payment methods are available. I can pay by Visa or
Mastercard. Alternatively, I can pay by some local payments like PayMe, Alipay,
Alipay HK, PPS, and debit cards.
Taobao takes Visa, Master and other local payments
CNY 99.42 or HKD 108.63 for both gifts
I decided to pay by Alipay HK. There is a
service charge of HKD 1.61. Total amount became CNY 99.42 or USD 14.
Details of my purchased items
I also got an email from my bank, alerting me on the purchase
Both items were pending for delivery
Now, both items are pending for shipment. I can only wait. Let us
move on to purchase the other gifts.
By just a simple search, I found a number of honeycomb merchants. And one of them drew my attention to, a Russian honeycomb gift set in a wooden box.
Russian honeycomb gift set
CNY 49.98 per pack
The shop was giving out 1 Yuan discount.
Well, better than nothing.
With other loyalty point, the price was brought down to CNY 47.49The shop is one of the many Russian specialty stores located near the Chinese-Russian border. The honeycomb gift set costs CNY 49.98 each. Again, the shop is giving out a CNY 1 discount. I also converted some of my loyalty points to bring down the price further to CNY 47.49.
Russian smoked sardines
Buy more, save more!A can costs CNY 15.80 while 4 cans only cost CNY 60.
The shop only gives discount for purchase over CNY 200
I still managed to get some discounts from my loyalty points
The next item is for myself. I am on a KETO diet and would need to have some sardines to supplement my meals. I have long been heard that Russian smoked sardines are excellent. I found another Russian specialty store selling those. I grabbed 4 cans. The shop provides free shipment but no further discount. I again converted some of my loyalty points to bring down the price further to CNY 58.20.
This is a honeycomb, not a mango!The final item is for me and my son. Recently, we have watched some videos of honeycomb harvest on Instagram. My son was so excited and wanted to become a honey farmer when he grows up. So, I promised him to purchase a wild honeycomb to see how it tastes. I found some honey harvesters on Taobao and one of them sold unprocessed wild honeycombs. The shop is located near the Chinese-Myanmar border.
Price of a honeycomb varies from CNY 169 to 430
Honeycombs were priced according to their weight
I picked the cheapest one
Since the honeycombs are wild, they came in different shapes and weights. According to their weights, different honeycombs were selling at different prices. Each honeycomb is unique. I bought the smallest one which costs CNY 169. My Taobao loyalty points brought down the price to CNY 165.62.
The delivery address was set to Lixin warehouseThe total price of all 3 items is CNY 271.31. Since they are food items, I diverted them to the parcel forwarder Lixin. Although all items are located at the Chinese border, local shipments were included in the selling prices.
Including service charge, I am paying around USD38.50 for all 3 gifts
I again paid by AliPayHK with some service charge. I ended up paying CNY 275.38 or HKD 300.88 in total. My bank immediately sent me an email, alerting me about the payment.
My bank is alerting me on the purchaseBelow are the breakdown lists of the price, discount and surcharges of all 3 items.
Details of my purchases, including all discounts and surcharges
Shopping completed. The only thing I need to do is wait.
Now, all 5 items are pending for dispatch. It was almost 10pm. I have finished my Christmas shopping. Payments have been settled. All I need to do is to wait until they are dispatched.
The next morning, I started receiving updates on my cellphone. The Taobao app kept sending me messages, updating me on the delivery statuses of my purchased items. Before lunchtime, all five items were “dispatched”. It was time for the next action.
All 5 items were "awaiting to receive" just before lunchtime
Once an item was marked as “dispatched” by the merchants, it did not mean that the item was really on its way. It just meant that the shipping document was ready and the merchant had registered the waybill number on Taobao. The item might not even be packed! Sometimes, it took more than a week until the item was really sent out. But anyway, with the waybill number, I could proceed to the next step: to register my parcels on the parcel forwarder websites.
I first registered the two items heading to Direct Buy. Both items were sent by STO Express, one of the biggest courier companies in mainland China.
Parcel "dispatched" at 9:40 am was the Rainbow Friends building blocks
Skibidi Toilet pencil case was "dispatched" at 10:59 am
I used my laptop to log in. The websites of parcel forwarders worked better on PC than on cellphone.
Login page of parcel forwarder Direct Buy
Click on the "My Parcel" button to register a parcel
Register your parcels here
Once logged in, I clicked on the button “My Parcel” and registered both parcels one by one. All I needed to fill in were the waybill numbers and the contents of my parcels. If I did not register my parcels, the forwarders would not send them out because they needed the information for customs declaration.
Both parcels were registered
Both parcels were under statuses “Not yet arrived” and “Not yet on the shelves”. After finishing, I moved on to register the other three parcels on Lixin.
Do all farmers wake up very early?
My wild honeycomb was "dispatched" at 8:29am.
I think the Chinese-Russian border is freezing in December.
How can this guy start working at 8:12 am?
The last parcel being "dispatched" was the honey gift set
You can see that the website interfaces of both parcel forwarders looked very different. But registration steps were similar. I keyed in the waybill numbers and contents of the parcels one by one.
Login page of Lixin
They were still celebrating Chinese New Year even though 10 months have passed.
Once logged in, it shows the parcel registration page
Again, I entered the waybill numbers and the contents of each parcel
The next step was to wait until the parcels arrived. But don’t worry. Taobao would keep you entertained while waiting. Once in a while, I received an update on my shipment. Since parcels were delivered through many transfer hubs, I got an update whenever a parcel had reached the next hub en route. So, technically I got an update every few hours in the following days.
My parcel was traveling from the Chinese-Russian border
The app can even locate the pickup location of the parcel.
How? By the postcode!
When I clicked on the shipment, the Taobao app would show a truck icon, telling me the current location and the route of my parcel. I could even find the exact location of my parcel when maximizing the map. These were all gimmicks. It was just an animation to make me happy.
However, when a parcel reached the next hub, the actual timestamps of arrival and departure would be registered and shown on the app.
I completed the payments on Tuesday night. Parcels started arriving at the warehouses on Friday. The first 2 parcels that arrived are the Skibidi Toilet pencil case and the Rainbow Friends building blocks. There was no surprise. The manufacturers are located in the southern part of China. Both parcels did not need to travel a long way to reach their destination.
Below are the detailed logistics records of both parcels.
泰坦监控人笔袋马桶人文具盒儿童中小学生游戏电视人音响人铅笔盒
已签收
12-15 14:04 快件已由【大德制造城五楼集运仓】代收，如有疑问请联系派件员：13112823616，投诉电话：0769-33555666。起早贪黑不停忙，如有不妥您见谅，好评激励我向上，求个五星暖心房。
派送中
12-15 11:30 [东莞市]【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】的申通小哥(杨小改/13112823616)正在为您派送(可放心接听95089申通专属派送号码)，投诉电话:0769-33555666
运输中
12-15 11:23 [东莞市]快件已到达【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】咨询电话：0769-33555666
12-14 15:57 [东莞市]快件离开【广东东莞转运中心】已发往【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】
12-14 15:50 [东莞市]快件已到达【广东东莞转运中心】
12-14 02:53 [泉州市]快件离开【福建泉州转运中心】已发往【广东东莞转运中心】
12-14 02:49 [泉州市]快件已到达【福建泉州转运中心】
12-14 00:51 [泉州市]快件离开【福建泉州新华公司】已发往【福建泉州转运中心】
已揽件
12-13 20:58 [泉州市]【福建泉州新华公司】(059536125231)的CBS陈红军(15392261948)已揽收
已发货
12-13 10:59 包裹正在等待揽收
已下单
12-12 21:25 商品已经下单
彩虹朋友怪物拼装机甲玩具班班幼儿园益智积木口水怪男孩盲盒礼物
已签收
12-15 19:27 快件已由【大德制造城五楼集运仓】代收，如有疑问请联系派件员：13112823616，投诉电话：0769-33555666。起早贪黑不停忙，如有不妥您见谅，好评激励我向上，求个五星暖心房。
派送中
12-15 15:47 [东莞市]【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】的申通小哥(杨小改/13112823616)正在为您派送(可放心接听95089申通专属派送号码)，投诉电话:0769-33555666
运输中
12-15 15:40 [东莞市]快件已到达【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】咨询电话：0769-33555666
12-15 08:24 [东莞市]快件离开【广东东莞转运中心】已发往【广东东莞虎门怀德营业部】
12-15 08:16 [东莞市]快件已到达【广东东莞转运中心】
12-15 02:29 [广州市]快件离开【广东广州良田转运中心】已发往【广东东莞转运中心】
12-15 01:29 [广州市]快件已到达【广东广州良田转运中心】
12-15 00:26 [广州市]快件离开【广州良田中心分公司】已发往【广东广州良田转运中心】
已揽件
12-14 21:57 [广州市]【广东广州花都花东公司】(02022326117)的花东十二部-黄铭书(13345212546)已揽收
已发货
12-13 09:40 包裹正在等待揽收
已下单
12-12 21:25 商品已经下单
The other parcels coming from the borders would take a bit longer. But to my surprise, the wild honey from the Myanmar border arrived on Friday afternoon. The other 2 from the Russian border arrived on Sunday evening.
Below are their detailed logistics records.
云南野生小挂蜜巢蜜嚼着吃纯正天然土蜂蜜百花蜜小草蜂蜜顺丰包邮
已签收
12-15 15:59 派送成功
12-15 15:59 您的快件代签收（立信转运仓代,集运仓立信收），如有疑问请电联快递员【胡道花，电话：13412865410】，感谢您使用顺丰，期待再次为您服务。代签图片：x-n.sf.cn/sW2R2（主单总件数：1件）
派送中
12-15 15:48 快件交给胡道花，正在派送途中（联系电话：13412865410，顺丰已开启“安全呼叫”保护您的电话隐私,请放心接听！）（主单总件数：1件）
运输中
12-15 15:08 快件到达 【东莞虎门白沙社区店】
12-15 14:29 快件在【东莞沙田中转场】完成分拣，准备发往 【东莞虎门白沙社区店】
12-15 12:42 快件到达 【东莞沙田中转场】
12-15 11:54 快件离开 【华南陆运枢纽（东莞）】，已在发往 【东莞沙田中转场】 的路上
12-15 09:51 快件在【华南陆运枢纽（东莞）】完成分拣，准备发往 【东莞沙田中转场】
12-15 09:46 快件到达 【华南陆运枢纽（东莞）】
12-14 06:46 快件离开 【大理凤仪中转场】，已在发往 【华南陆运枢纽（东莞）】 的路上
12-14 05:01 快件在【大理凤仪中转场】完成分拣，准备发往 【华南陆运枢纽（东莞）】
12-14 04:05 快件到达 【大理凤仪中转场】
12-13 21:26 快件在【德宏瑞丽集分站】完成分拣，准备发往 【大理凤仪中转场】
12-13 20:06 快件到达 【德宏瑞丽集分站】
12-13 19:40 快件在【德宏瑞丽瑞兴路店】完成分拣，准备发往 【德宏瑞丽集分站】
已揽件
12-13 17:55 顺丰速运 已收取快件
已发货
12-13 08:29 包裹正在等待揽收
已下单
12-12 21:52 商品已经下单
蜂巢蜜礼盒 俄罗斯进口蜂巢蜜原态蜂蜜正宗品质加工嚼着吃 包邮
12-17 12:25 您的快件已签收，签收人: 魏小。如有疑问请联系业务员: 13712164399，网点电话：0769-85111166，投诉电话: 0769-85111166。感谢使用圆通速递，期待再次为您服务！
12-17 02:18 【广东省东莞市虎门】的黄木清（13712164399）正在派件，请耐心等待！如有疑问请联系网点:0769-85111166，投诉电话:0769-85111166。[95161和185211号段的上海号码为圆通业务员专属号码，请放心接听]
12-17 02:17 您的快件已经到达【广东省东莞市虎门】
12-17 00:50 您的快件离开【东莞转运中心】，已发往【广东省东莞市虎门】
12-17 00:21 您的快件已经到达【东莞转运中心】
12-14 23:55 您的快件离开【华北转运中心】，已发往【东莞转运中心】
12-14 23:49 您的快件已经到达【华北转运中心】
12-14 02:26 您的快件离开【哈尔滨转运中心】，已发往【华北转运中心】
12-14 02:21 您的快件已经到达【哈尔滨转运中心】
12-13 17:43 您的快件离开【黑龙江省牡丹江市绥芬河市】，已发往【哈尔滨转运中心】
12-13 15:59 您的快件被【黑龙江省牡丹江市绥芬河市】揽收，揽收人: 王作海（18249389812）
俄罗斯波罗的海鲱鱼罐头油浸秋刀鱼金枪鱼进口海鲜罐头塔科夫零食
12-17 16:50 【东莞市】 快件已由【立信仓库】 签收, 如有疑问请电联派件业务员：13268848152, 签收网点电话：0769-33557166，投诉电话：18025285287。感谢使用中通快递，期待再次为您服务！
12-17 15:29 【东莞市】 东莞白沙 的业务员【立信集运仓，13268848152】正在为您派件（95720为中通快递员外呼专属号码，请放心接听，如有问题可联系网点：0769-33557166，投诉电话：18025285287）
12-17 15:29 【东莞市】 快件已到达 东莞白沙
12-17 08:15 【东莞市】 快件已发往 东莞中心
12-16 20:52 【东莞市】 快件已到达 东莞新寮步
12-16 13:47 【东莞市】 快件已发往 东莞白沙
12-16 13:43 【东莞市】 快件已到达 东莞中心
12-16 07:33 快递正在加速转派中，请耐心等待！
12-14 04:05 【哈尔滨市】 快件已发往 东莞中心
12-14 04:05 【哈尔滨市】 快件已到达 哈尔滨中转
12-13 15:32 【牡丹江市】 快件已发往 哈尔滨中转
12-13 15:31 【牡丹江市】 牡丹江绥芬河（0453-6343249）LY（18946381444）已揽收
In summary, below are the arrival time of all 5 parcels:- Skibidi Toilet Pencil Case, from Quanzhou. Arrived at: 15-Dec, 1404 hours. Total logistics time: 3 days
- Wild Honeycomb, from Ruili. Arrived at: 15-Dec, 1559 hours. Total logistics time: 3 days
- Rainbow Friends Building Blocks, from Guangzhou. Arrived at: 15-Dec, 1927 hours. Total logistics time: 3 days
- Russian Honeycomb Gift Set, from Mudanjiang. Arrived at: 17-Dec, 1225 hours. Total logistics time: 5 days
- Russian Smoked Sardines, from Mudanjiang. Arrived at: 17-Dec, 1650 hours. Total logistics time: 5 days
After all parcels have arrived at the warehouses of the parcel forwarders, the next step is to request the forwarders to deliver the parcels to me. I raised the shipment request to Direct Buy first, as both parcels had arrived by Friday evening. I submitted the shipment request at around 10pm on Friday evening, hours after the arrival of both parcels at the warehouse.
Both items were "arrived" and "on the shelf"
After logging in, I found both parcels were marked “arrived” and “on the shelf”. The forwarder had also recorded the actual weight of both parcels. I had to pay for the shipment from the warehouse to Hong Kong according to the combined weight of both parcels. For this shipment, it was 0.32kg. This means I had to pay the minimum charge of 1kg.
I selected the pick-up point next to my office block
The second step was to select the delivery method. Since there was a Direct Buy pickup point just next to my office block, I chose to pick up the parcel from there. Self-pickup is normally cheaper than door-to-door delivery. As a medium size parcel forwarder, Direct Buy provided 5 pickup locations for Wanchai district. It was actually not bad.
I decided to pay by AlipayHK
Then the next step was to select the payment method. The shipment charge for both packages was only HKD 11, or USD 1.41. I decided to pay by AlipayHK.
A payment QR code showed up
A QR code showed up on the screen. I took out my cellphone, opened the AlipayHK app and scanned the QR code.
Inside the AlipayHK app,
there is a scan button on the lower left corner
I was asked to confirm the payment
It asked me to confirm the payment of HKD 11. I had already linked my Mastercard with my AlipayHK account and those 11 dollars would appear on my credit card bill.
Shipment order was successfully placed
After confirming, Direct Buy immediately knew that I had paid. The shipment order was now under status “Paid”. The delivery address shown here was the location of the pickup point. It was located on the 21/F of a class C commercial building.
Confirmation mail from my bank
I also received a confirmation email from my bank. So, every payment was securely monitored.
The last parcel also arrived at the warehouse of Lixin on Sunday evening (17-Dec). It was time to raise another shipment request. I logged in to Lexin’s website and found all 3 parcels were marked as “arrived” and “on the shelf”. Normally, when a parcel arrives at a warehouse, it takes 3 to 4 hours for the forwarder to move them onto the shelf. Only parcels “on the shelf” can be shipped out. Lixin also weighed the parcels and marked down their weights on the website. I had to pay accordingly.
All 3 items were "arrived" and "on the shelf"
I was requesting to combine all 3 parcels into one shipment
I clicked on the “Request shipment” button on the top and selected all 3 parcels. Lixin would pack them together and combine them into 1 big package.
The next step was to select a shipping method. Self pick-up was always the cheapest. But Lixin was a very small company and provided only 1 pick-up location for the whole city, which was their office. Lixin had also teamed up with the local courier SF Express so that I could also choose to pick up my item from any SF service center, parcel lockers, or 7-Eleven. But the price was nearly double (HKD 48 vs. HKD 27). The last option, pick up from their warehouse, was only available for packages weighing more than 100kg.
Self pick-up options:
1. from Lixin office;
2. from SF Express pick-up points; or
3. from Lixin warehouse
Delivery options to commercial buildings:
1. through SF Express;
2. through Lixin delivery;
3. for goods > 100kg.
Delivery options to non-commercial buildings:
1. for goods > 100kg;
2. through SF Express;
3. through Lixin delivery.
Lixin also offered door-to-door delivery. They had only a small delivery team and delivery would normally take longer. Lixin had also teamed up with SF Express so that I could have my item delivered by SF Express, which would be faster but at a higher cost. The prices listed in the table above were only applicable to commercial buildings in the city center.
Lixin also delivered to non-commercial buildings. But they charged more than SF Express. So, if I wanted to have my package delivered to my home, I had better select SF Express here.
Settle the payment after selecting the delivery method
I decided to use Lixin’s own delivery service to deliver the package to my office. After entering my name, phone number and address, I moved on to settle the payment. And this was a super complicated step. Don’t blame me if I did not warn you in advance!
On the next page, I was asked to pay 32 dollars to Lixin. But how? Their website did not even clarify what currency they were charging.
Payment was made in Taobao!
The fact was, Lixin was a very small company that did not even have their own payment system. The amount was CNY 32, not HKD. They had set up a virtual store on Taobao. I had to go to Taobao to buy 32 “tokens” from their virtual store, each costing CNY 1.
Lixin shipment "token", CNY 1 each
I put 32 Lixin "tokens" into my shopping cart
I put 32 “tokens” into my Taobao shopping cart and then paid directly to Taobao, not Lixin. 32 tokens were worth CNY 32.
I selected my default address for the delivery of the "tokens"
Just like buying anything online, I had to select the delivery address for the “tokens”. I chose my company’s address, which was also my default address.
Taobao asked me to pay CNY 32 for the “tokens” and once paid, the “tokens” would be delivered to my address without any “shipment cost”. That was funny!
Launching the payment screen of Alipay China
I paid again by Alipay. This was not AlipayHK, but Alipay Mainland China. They were 2 different platforms but owned by the same boss. Hong Kong was considered “overseas” here so I had to click on the “Overseas payment” button.
I was selecting "paying by Alipay" inside Alipay
On the next screen, I selected pay by AlipayHK. Yes, I was selecting AlipayHK inside AlipayChina. Are you still here?
Finally, the QR code for AlipayHK showed up
Finally, the AlipayHK QR code showed up. I had to pay HKD 35.23 in total, which was USD 4.13.
I took out my cellphone, scanned the QR code and paid by my Mastercard, which was linked to my AlipayHK account. There was a surcharge. I ended up paying HKD 35.76 in total, about USD 4.20.
Both AlipayHK and Taobao have confirmed my payment
After receiving the confirmation message from Alipay, Taobao also confirmed my payment.
The Taobao order number is a "proof of purchase" for Lixin
Now, the 32 “tokens” had been paid. Just like placing any order from Taobao, I received an order number. And this was the important part.
Register the Taobao order number onto Lixin's website
In order to let Lixin know that I had settled the shipment cost, I had to go back to Lixin’s website and manually enter my Taobao order number.
Now, just sit back and wait for the package to arrive
Now, the status of my shipment request had changed to “Requested”. Lixin would manually cross check my payment with their record on Taobao. If everything was okay, they would start delivering my items. This was also the reason why I had to open my Lixin account with the same name as my Taobao account. They had to make sure that I had personally purchased their “tokens” from Taobao instead of using someone else’s order number.
Courier services provided by parcel forwarders are also very professional, despite the fact that both Direct Buy and Lixin are not any big companies. On the website of Direct Buy, I can track the delivery of my combined shipment. The interface is not as fancy as the one provided by TaoBao, though.
Tracking record of my Direct Buy combined shipment
I placed my combined shipment order on 15-Dec, Friday, at around 10pm. On the next morning, even though it was a Saturday, my shipment was still packed. It departed the Direct Buy warehouse at around lunchtime of the same day. Two days later, on 18-Dec Monday afternoon, the package arrived at its pickup point in Wanchai.
Whatsapp message from the pickup point
SMS message from Direct Buy
Once the package had arrived at the pickup point, I immediately got a Whatsapp message from Direct Buy. An SMS message had also reached my cellphone. Due to the limited space of the pickup point, I needed to collect my package within 3 days or else they would charge me storage fee of HKD 10 per day. The forwarder needed to make sure even dumb phone users would not miss any shipment alert. That was the reason why they still used SMS.
Wah Hing Commercial Building
A class C commercial building with a very narrow enterance
GiftStyle, a Direct Buy cooperative store
So, how did the pickup point look like? The name of the pickup point was called GiftStyle. It was a gift collection store located on the 21st floor of a class C commercial building. The store was not very large but looked very neat inside. They hung a rope at the entrance, not allowing any customer to walk inside. I told the storekeeper my phone number over the door and in less than a minute, he handed the parcel to me.
The combined shipment of Direct Buy
Inside is the Rainbow Friends building blocks (left)
and Skibidi Toilet pencil case (right)
The parcel looked like this. It was packed inside a typical courier plastic bag with a Direct Buy shipment label affixed on it. Inside were 2 separate plastic bags, one belonging to the Skibidi Toilet pencil case and the other belonging to the Rainbow Friends building blocks.
The combined shipment provided by Lixin was similar. Tracking information could be found on Lixin’s website. Since Lixin shipment was paid through Taobao, the combined shipment was also tracked on the Taobao app.
Tracking record provided by Lixin
Same record was also available through Taobao app
A map showing the location of my package
I placed the shipment order on 17-Dec Sunday at around 7pm. 2 days later, on 19-Dec morning, the parcel was on the way of delivery. However, it only arrived at my working place on 20-Dec at around 5pm.
SMS from Lixin, alerting me on the parcel delivery
My Lixin combined shipment, wrapped in courier bag of SF Express
The combined shipment by Lixin looked like this. The 3 parcels were wrapped into a big plastic bag and Lixin’s shipment label was affixed on it. It was funny that LiXin used a courier bag from SF Express! Can you imagine KFC using McDonald’s paper box to hold their chicken?
Inside the SF Express bag is the 3 other gifts I purchased from Taobao
Inside were 3 boxes of my 3 gifts, the Russian honeycomb gift set, the Russian smoked sardines, and the wild honeycomb from the China-Myanmar border.
The Russian honeycomb gift set from the Chinese-Russian border
The honeycomb gift set was wrapped in bubble bag
Nice wooden box
The honeycomb was surprisingly still in a good shape after traveling such a long way!
I opened the Russian honeycomb gift set first. Inside the carton box, there was the gift set wrapped by bubble foil. And the wooden box looked like this. It looked very nice, indeed.
Inside this heavy package is 4 cans of Russian smoked sardines
They were wrapped in air cushion
4 cans of sardines, with a pack of snack
Russian smoked sardines were packed inside an air cushion. There were some dentes on the cans but luckily, there was no leakage. I tried some and they tasted good. The storekeeper also gave me some snacks as a gift.
The biggest pack is the wild honeycomb
Honeycomb is packed inside this foam box
The honeycomb is wrapped by a bubble bag
This is the wild honeycomb from Myanmar border!
The last and the most expensive one was the wild honeycomb. It was packed inside a foam box. The honeycomb was sealed inside a plastic bag. It looked exactly as the one shown on the photo.
Apart from the honeycomb, the storekeeper also sent me a wooden spoon, a catalogue and a leaflet teaching you how to distinguish between real and fake honey, and explaining the scientific study of the benefits of honey.
Product catalogue of the honey farmer
The leaflet provided by the honey farmer
My son was overjoyed to see the honeycombs. Maybe I should write a post about honey someday.
Overall, I paid HKD 456.27 in total for all 5 items, including shipments. Order was placed at around 10pm on 12-Dec and the last parcels arrived in the afternoon of 20-Dec. All Christmas presents arrived on time. From the moment I pressed the pay button on my cellphone to the moment I got the gifts on hand, it took only 8 days.
Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to show you how effective our logistics services were.
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