charliep8

American living in China for >15 years needs some help. My wife and I just had our first baby and we need help from somebody who is coming to Beijing sometime soon to bring over some baby things from the USA. Nothing unusual, just regular things like a Stroller, Cheerios, baby bottle, etc.

In exchange for this help we'd be happy to pick you up at the Beijing Airport, take you to your hotel and then take you out for dinner upon your arrival in Beijing. Plus if you need any help while in Beijing you will have my cell phone number ... sometimes it is good to have a friend in the city. Please leave me your contact info and I will send you an email or give you a call. Thanks!

Hanuman

Hmmmm......

crellston

Hmmm.. Indeed!

charliep8

Hmmm what?

Chinese baby products are notoriously fake and we don't want our daughter eating fake baby formula or drinking out of a bottle made with poisonous plastic.

thursdaysd

How do you feel about raising your daughter in Beijing? I've been reading reports about expats leaving because of the pollution. It sounds bad enough I've had doubts about revisiting.

charliep8

Interesting you ask. I get a sore throat just thinking about Beijing.

Our daughter was born in Hong Kong so she could get dual citizenship and has spent most of her life in the south where there is much less pollution. I am in no hurry to have her move to Beijing but my wife is from there and most of my business contacts are in Beijing so eventually we will have to return. I regularly travel to Beijing which is why I can offer to pick somebody up at the airport and really I prefer Beijing over Shanghai or Guangzhou from a people point of view - both Chinese and international.

thursdaysd

" really I prefer Beijing over Shanghai or Guangzhou from a people point of view"

Me too, but from a tourist point of view! Great that your daughter will be bilingual.

Maybe you could weigh on this thread on the pollution issue:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...0-year-old.cfm

MissGreen

Great offer. However, can't you buy that stuff on the internet and have it delivered?

charliep8

I just spent $81 buying 7 boxes of Earth's Best Rice Cereal which can be purchased at Toys-R-Us in the USA for $2.79 per box. Toys-R-Us won't ship to China (they have stores here) so the boxes I bought cost $3.80 each + $56 for priority mail from another online store.

The stroller I want somebody to bring over is not cheap. Real ones are very difficult to find over here in China and ... they make fake replicas in China which are very good quality and hard to tell apart from the real ones. I have no desire to buy a fake and put my money in the pockets of some cheat.

So you see, if I can find somebody who is coming to Beijing, I can pick them up at the airport in my nice luxury car, save them from waiting an hour (or longer) in line for a taxi, take them to their hotel, and then swing back one night to take them out for a genuine authentic delicious Beijing style dinner. I can have Toys-R-Us or Amazon deliver the things I want to your door. And the airline will let you take a stroller on board and not count it as an extra bag. Everybody wins.

Hanuman

I see you've posted the same question on all the other travel forums. Perhaps it will be best if you have the stuff you want ship to your family in America and have them send it over. Or you could fly to a nearby country on a low cost airline and stock up on the stuff you need for your baby.

I doubt if you will be able to persuade a total stranger to accept goods you sent them by mail and carry them to you in China.

MissGreen

Hanuman, I never thought that the items would be sent to a stranger to bring them over. In that case. No way. I, for some reason, imagined picking them up at the store which I assume means no tampering with the items.

Hanuman

Missgreen then you would have to advance the money to a stranger and what happen if he doesn't show up once you arrived in Beijing?

jobin

I would never accept this offer. Far too many possible manipulations and headaches. Once, a few years back, i did carry cans of baby powder for a 'colleague' from USA to Beijing. So i know from experience that such a method is nothing but trouble for the middleman.

And to the OP; you must be kidding about the baby stroller. I mean if you are serious (read 'nut case') about such things then you are totally compromised by living in Beijing. I was there last week and it was horrid. Huge buildings, two blocks away, could not be seen due to air pollution.

I can suggest Ulumuqi, out in XinJiang as a suitable alternative with far better air, water and climate.

JPDeM

I doubt that the OP's employer will be willing to move him to Xinjiang province. The water may be clean but no baby formula there and a policeman with a machine gun on every street corner.

lcuy

There was a thing on NPR recently about parents ordering baby food from the US. Nobody trusts the stuff sold there to be what it says it is, even sealed "name brand" items. The shops in Hong Kong that carry western made products limit the quantity they'll sell, and customs is also a problem.

I don't know that I'd do this for a complete stranger, but I wish you luck. Many years ago, I always asked friends & Family to bring things like cribs, strollers, rugs and other furniture to us in Hawaii, due to the outrageous shipping fees charged by mainland US companies.
Luckily, the airlines were extremely lenient on their luggage limits then!