The Postal Notice Blackboard

Feb 17, 2009 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Whenever we received a package the first year after having moved to Chengdu in 2006 we would receive a notice in our mailbox that the package was to be picked up at so-and-so post office. Each time a notice came the package would be waiting for us at a different post office. Some of the post offices were somewhat in our area of the city; others far, far away in some remote location. About 20 months ago we stopped receiving notices - the packages started to be delivered directly to our apartment complex. Sometimes there would be a knock on the door, with a guard standing outside with our package. Other times a small piece of paper with a request to come to the guard office to pick up our package was found glued to our front door. Since just before Chinese New Year this year there is a completely new innovation - The Postal Notice Blackboard. This notice board is now situated by the gate to our compound, the only entrance to an entire area inhabited by hundreds of people. On it you can see if you have a letter or package, listed according to your apartment number (we're C2 1302 so no mail for us this day, Kris and Stephanie on the 17th floor have got something though). This is very convenient and quite exciting to come home everyday and check if something has arrived. But as far as letters go I can't really figure out their system. We all have mailboxes on the ground floor of each block. Sometimes mail is put there, sometimes its put on the blackboard to be picked up. Sometimes it never comes at all (like my photographic magazines and Fotografisk Tidskrift). And why did they suddenly decide to send us our packages directly to our address? Had we passed some sort of test? After 24 years dealing with China I've learnt not to question the workings of the Chinese postal service...