I want to write a letter to someone in Taiwan from USA, would it be ok if I write the address in Chinese?

Question

I don't know the English form of the address. I've sent letters to Hong Kong, but the address was in English. I don't know if the post office in US would know where I'm sending it to if I write it in Chinese.

Answer 1

Its best that you write in both language so that both side will know where to get it to and who to send it to. The address should be written in Chinese first, then English as you are sending it to Taiwan. But whatever the fact, as long as you state which city and country that you be sending to from the US in English, it should be alright.  

Answer 2

its ok. i have always written it in english. but just put for example  Taipei,Taiwan on the bottom

Answer 3

I work in a Sorting Office in the UK which deals with mail arriving into the country from abroad. We often find mail with the address written in Arabic or Cyrillic or another form of script that we are not familiar with.

We have no choice but to send them to the dead letter office, the National Returns Centre in Belfast, which deals with all undeliverable mail. There, we expect they will have more facilities for translation than we do, and so can work out where it is supposed to go.

I should imagine other countries operate a similar system, so it may not matter too much if you've already sent an item all in Chinese, or all in English.

My advice is to do what most other people have suggested.

In the sorting process in America, it will simply be marked as foreign. Once it gets to an International Sorting Office, they only really need to know which country to send it to, so you only really need to make sure that the country, and perhaps city or region, is in English. To be safe, you could write both on the FRONT (the back is for return addresses), but you have said that you don't know the address in English. I would suggest you try and find out, but it shouldn't matter too much.

In short, the USPS only needs to know the country to direct the item to. It is then in the hands of the receiving nation's postal service.

Answer 4

of course. that would make things easier for the postman in taiwan too. but don't forget to write "Taiwan, R.O.C" at the bottom to help the US post office sort the mail

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Answer 5

Write the address in Chinese, but make sure you put on the envelope in big English letters TAIWAN so the people at the US post office know what country to send it to.

Answer 6

Chuckles got what I was about to say already. give that boy some points!

I receive mail regularly in Taiwan with romanized addresses and no chinese, but when it's my own stuff that I'm sending to myself or if I am labeling luggage or something, I always write Chinese plus Romanized.

include a phone number if you are worried. They will use it if they can't figure it out.

Answer 7

right it in english first, then in chinese underneath that, separated by a line or something

this will make it easier for the chinese and the american postal service :)