Your package is at a Chinese customs checkpoint being processed — a standard stage, not an accusation. Inbound personal packages get reviewed for value and contents, and clearance speed varies from a day to a couple of weeks depending on the port and the season. Three things typically extend the wait: tax being assessed (you'll be notified to pay before release), a request for your ID for identity verification, or an inspection of the contents. Check the local carrier's app — China Post, EMS or the platform's tracking — for any action waiting on you, because the request often appears there before anywhere else. Once cleared, your timeline flips to domestic scans quickly. If weeks pass in silence, have the sender query it from their end; origin-side enquiries move faster.

China taxes personal imports through a postal articles tax, but there's a built-in kindness: when the tax works out to RMB 50 or less, customs waives it entirely, and your package clears free. That's the practical "tax-free allowance" people mean by personal import tax limit — it's a waiver on small tax amounts, not a value threshold you can shop up to. The tax rate depends on the goods category: everyday items sit at the lower rates, while cosmetics, alcohol and luxury goods attract the higher ones. So a modest order of books or clothes often slips under the waiver, while a small bottle of premium skincare might not. When tax is due, you pay before delivery — usually through the carrier's app or at pickup — and the assessment slip shows exactly how the figure was calculated.

China runs real-name verification on personal imports: customs matches the package's recipient against an actual person before releasing it. Uploading your National ID (or entering the number when the platform asks) proves you're a genuine individual importer rather than an unregistered business, ties the package to your personal import record, and is simply required for the clearance to complete. Cross-border platforms like Taobao Global or JD Worldwide usually collect it at checkout so everything's pre-cleared; if it wasn't, the courier or China Post will prompt you — often through their app or WeChat — while your package waits. Respond quickly: an ID request left hanging is one of the most common reasons a package sits "in customs" for weeks. Use your own ID, matching the recipient name exactly, and the hold usually lifts within days.

It's the baton pass: the international or long-haul network has finished its job, and a local courier — SF Express, YTO, ZTO or another — now has your package for the last stretch to your address. From here, things usually move fast: Chinese last-mile delivery is among the quickest in the world, and same-day or next-day delivery after this scan is normal in cities. You may also see a new local tracking number appear at this point; both numbers work on Parcel Monitor and we keep the story connected. Expect the final update to mention either your door, a pickup point, or a Hive Box locker — where couriers often deposit packages by default. If you have a preference, the courier's app or a note to the rider is the place to set it.

All the majors that move China's staggering package volumes. China Post and EMS for postal and international mail; SF Express for premium speed; the e-commerce workhorses YTO, ZTO, STO and Yunda; JD Logistics for JD orders; and Cainiao, the network coordinating most Taobao and AliExpress deliveries. We follow international carriers into and out of China too — DHL, FedEx, UPS — plus the cross-border lines carrying platform orders worldwide. In total, more than 1,000 carriers on one page. Paste in whatever number you have, in whatever format; we'll identify the network and keep following your package through every handover, including the moment an international leg hands off to a local courier for delivery.

Use the number from your order confirmation — Cainiao numbers often start with LP, while China Post and EMS use the classic 13-character postal format — and drop it in here. We'll pull every scan into one timeline: export from China, the flight, arrival at your destination country, and the handover to your local post. That handover is the part worth understanding: Cainiao coordinates the journey but local posts do the delivering, so a new local number frequently appears mid-route. Enter either one and we keep them linked. The other classic moment is the long quiet stretch after "departed from origin" — that's the international leg, where nobody scans anything for days. Normal. If you shop on AliExpress regularly, connect your Gmail and your orders start tracking themselves.

China's list has real teeth, so it pays to know it before ordering. Strictly prohibited: weapons, drugs, and any printed or digital media deemed politically sensitive. Heavily restricted and commonly seized: fresh food, meat and dairy products, plants and seeds, and medications — even everyday supplements can require permits. Electronics with radio functions can need certification, and used goods face extra scrutiny. Cosmetics and packaged foods in small personal quantities usually pass, but quantity matters: anything that looks resale-scale gets treated as commercial cargo. If customs pulls an item, it's typically returned to sender or destroyed, with the choice not always yours. The safe play for anything edible, biological or medicinal: check with the sender that it's mailable to China before they ship, not after.

The rule is friendlier than it sounds. Personal packages mailed into Mainland China can be worth up to RMB 1,000 each — RMB 800 if they're coming from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan — and there's a bonus on top: if the postal tax (行邮税) works out to RMB 50 or less, customs waives it entirely, so plenty of small packages arrive tax-free. One single, indivisible item worth more than the cap — a camera, a handbag — still clears as a personal article; it just pays the full tax rate. The real trouble starts when a package holds several items that together blow past the limit: it can't clear as personal mail and gets returned or pushed into formal commercial clearance through a licensed agent. And don't split one order into several boxes to the same address — customs flags that pattern as trade. Buying from registered cross-border e-commerce platforms? That's a different lane, with a roomier RMB 5,000 per-transaction limit.

Two very different halves of that phrase. "Export customs clearance successful" is pure good news: your package passed China's outbound checks and is cleared to fly — the long international quiet stretch usually starts right after this scan, and that silence is normal. "Retained" (退运/扣留 in some feeds) means outbound customs held the package instead: usually a contents issue — a battery, liquid or restricted item — or paperwork that didn't match. A retained package typically goes back to the seller rather than onward, and only the seller can act on it: they'll get the reason, fix or refund, and reship if possible. So read your status carefully. Cleared: relax and wait out the flight. Retained: message the seller today, ask what customs flagged, and agree on a reship or refund before the trail cools.

It doesn't vanish — it gets reclassified. A package over the personal limit stops qualifying for the friendly personal-articles channel, and customs offers two paths: return it to the sender, or clear it as formal cargo with commercial-grade paperwork, duties and usually a customs broker. For an individual, the cargo route is rarely worth it for one package, so returns are the common outcome. The exception works in your favour: one single indivisible item over the limit — one laptop, one instrument — can still clear personally, paying full tax. If you get the dreaded over-limit notice, talk to your seller about the return and refund first, and next time keep each order comfortably under the cap, from one seller, in one package. Boring, but it clears every time.

Because it really is departing multiple sorting centres — China's delivery networks are built as chains of regional hubs, and a package from a Guangdong seller to a Beijing address might pass through three or four of them, each logging arrival and departure. E-commerce carriers scan generously, so you get a play-by-play most countries never show. Read it as a good sign: every "departed" means confirmed motion. The updates only deserve attention when they stop making geographic sense — bouncing between the same two cities repeatedly can mean a routing or address problem, and a long freeze at one hub during shopping festivals like 11.11 means it's queued in the surge. Otherwise, enjoy one of the most transparent tracking experiences anywhere, and watch the city names walk toward yours.

Hive Box lockers are the default ending for millions of deliveries: instead of ringing your doorbell, the courier deposits your package into a locker bank at your compound and the system sends you a pickup code by SMS or WeChat. Walk down, enter the code (or scan), the door pops open, done — any hour, no waiting at home. A few practical notes: pickup is free for an initial window, after which small storage fees can kick in, so don't let a package marinate for days. If you'd rather have true doorstep delivery — say, for something heavy — set that preference in the courier's app or tell the rider; couriers are technically supposed to ask before using a locker. And when tracking says "delivered" but your hands are empty, check your messages: the code is usually sitting right there.

You may also want to explore tracking for these other destinations:

• See deliveries to and from Hong Kong

• Where's your Japan parcel?

• Follow your shipment in South Korea

• Got a parcel from Taiwan? Track it here

• Track parcels going to or from United States

• Check on your Great Britain delivery

These carrier pages are worth a look too:

• Got a China Post number? Start here

• Check your China EMS shipment

• S.F Express updates in one place

• Waiting on YTO Express? Track it here

• Track your 4PX parcels

• Following a Yanwen delivery?