We’ve recently been shopping on the Chinese mega online shopping store, Aliexpress, where all sorts of things can be found here—from Apparel to Electronics, commercial appliances to novelty items. This site contains Chinese businesses big and small selling their products. The amount of products on display there, it’s even fun to just browse! We love it!

Like with all shopping we do, we are wary of good and bad sellers, looking carefully at seller feedback and ratings. After we’re happy with the seller, we make sure we have the shipping method via either China Post Register Mail or Hong Kong Post. These are the ones we have had good experiences with and they have been very reliable and speedy for us.

But for one of our parcels, we hadn’t paid enough attention to the shipping method and confirmed the order with the shipping method as The Seller’s Choice. This means the seller would decide on the shipping method to use to ship the parcel. The seller’s choice for our parcel came to be Yanwen Logistics. Yanwen Logistics is a postal mediator for postal agencies (like China Post or Hong Kong Post).

Yanwen parcels come with tracking numbers that start with YC with nine digits in the middle and end with YW such as YC123456789YW. This tracking number can be tracked on Yanwen Logistics’ site and it provides scans for when the parcel arrives into Yanwen’s sorting centre to the moment it arrives into the destination country. These Yanwen tracking numbers are specific to the Yanwen tracking system, so they won’t be recognised as tracking numbers on the tracking systems provided on your country’s postal agency’s website. In other words, on the Yanwen website, the Yanwen parcel with the tracking number like YC123456789YW will have the final scan of arriving into the destination country and no further scans. From then on, the Yanwen parcel will enter into the destination country like a regular parcel and cannot be tracked i.e. tracking stops. The parcel then gets sorted and delivered by the destination country’s postal service.

Our Yanwen parcel was going to be delivered to China Post and shipped to us via the standard, untracked service of China Post Air Mail. Parcels have always arrived coming through China Post, so we weren’t concerned about whether our Yanwen parcel will be delivered to us or not. However, the tracking scans of these Yanwen parcels did concern us when we saw that it updated in the same fashion as those Yanwen scans posted on forums online of other parcels that have gone through Yanwen.

Scans for Yanwen parcel with YC – YW Tracking Number

The below scan was noted down on 15 December 2014 (the day of the last scan for the parcel):

Yanwen scan

These scans changed some time between 15 Dec and 22 Dec where the dispatch date from Yanwen to the International Mail Centre in Beijing changed and the arrival into the country also changed:

Yanwen scan

The pattern seems to be 4 days to reach Beijing Outward Office of Exchange/Processing Centre (ours took 5 days), dispatch the next day, handover to the airport following that day and arrival into destination country 3 days later. All updates occur at midnight except for the first two scans. When we were following the progress of our Yanwen parcel, the scan updates did come in as predicted and always updated at the exact same hour – 00:00 (Beijing time).

Our Yanwen parcel was delivered to our door on 23 December 2014, eight days after arriving into the country. This is another strange thing. Eight days to get to us after arriving into the country is very unusual for us. From past experience, after seeing the scan that says our parcel has arrived into the country, they always get delivered the very next day or the day following that. If not, then three working days from the time it arrives into the country. This Yanwen parcel of ours, we saw no reason for it to be held in customs—no prohibited items, overweight or a high value—so the eight days do seem quite long and strange to us. We actually had another parcel coming in via Singapore Post that was delivered the very next day after seeing the arrival into country scan, so this makes us feel that the scans from Yanwen are systematically updated even more.

Though we feel that the Yanwen scans aren’t really accurate or reliable, we don’t have a problem with Yanwen. Yanwen is simply the middleman between the seller and the postal agency (China Post or Hong Kong Post). The postal agency is the one that actually dispatches the parcel to be sent to us. How we see it is that these Yanwen parcels are simply regular parcels without tracking—because that’s what they are. The YC123456789YW tracking number are only able to be inputted into Yanwen’s tracking system on their website and scans will continue to show up whilst still in China and up to the point of arrival into the destination country. It will not show up with any tracking information in the tracking systems of the postal agency in your country because it is specific to Yanwen. No tracking information is provided after arrival into the country because Yanwen parcels are simply standard, regular parcels that is untrackable.

We wouldn’t hesitate to have another parcel shipped via Yanwen at all. This Yanwen parcel of ours (which was actually a China Post parcel since it came through to us via China Post) did arrive in an acceptable time for a standard China Post Air Mail parcel. However, we now know scans provided by the Yanwen tracking number aren’t necessarily an accurate indicator of where the parcel is at. In the future, we won’t look to the scans with too much accuracy in telling us when we can expect to receive the parcel.

Addition (21 Nov 2018):

Another parcel we ordered from Aliexpress shipped using Yanwen. This one went through the Special Line service and the Yanwen parcel was with a PR123456789YP tracking number.

Unlike our first Yanwen parcel, the YC123456789YW Yanwen parcel, which came to us as a standard untrackable China Post Air Mail parcel, this other Yanwen parcel came to us as a trackable China Post Economy parcel. This PR123456789YP Yanwen parcel came with a China Post tracking number in the format of AB123456789CN. China Post tracking numbers (as well as tracking numbers from postal agencies of other countries) will always begin with two letters (which signifies what type of mail it is), followed by nine digits and ends with the country code. For China Post it’s ‘CN’. This China Post AB123456789CN parcel tracking number is one that gives information on where the parcel is at upon China Post receiving the parcel from Yanwen up to the point of being delivered. This tracking number is one you can track using the tracking service on your country’s postal agency website.

The amount of tracking information for this tracked Yanwen parcel was abundant and it wasn’t so systematically updated. There were information that was updating as the parcel went through each stage of the postal system.

The scans for this Yanwen Special Line/China Post Tracked Economy parcel of ours told us when Yanwen had accepted and dispatched the parcel. It told us the Yanwen parcel was then received and processed by the local post office. It got passed onto the China Post processing office where (we assume) the parcel got changed from a Yanwen parcel with a PR…YP parcel identifier to a China Post parcel with a trackable parcel identifier in the format mentioned above (AB123456789CN). It then went onto a flight and into the country. It completed a customs clearance and delivered to us.

Our parcel took two weeks to be delivered to us. Two weeks (or 10 business days) is the standard timeframe for regular international air parcels to arrive. So, our parcel came right on the delivery timeframe. Below, is a screenshot of the scans of our Yanwen Special Line parcel:

Scans for Yanwen Special Line parcel

Extra Information

We always like to make sure that our address is written exactly how our postal agency likes it—in the correct format and providing everything that needs to be on the address—so to not cause confusion that ends up delaying the parcel from being delivered—or worse, delivered to the wrong place! A simple error like missing out the street designation, using a letter instead of a number for a unit number (e.g. 123A instead of 1/123) or missing the unit number out (e.g. writing only 123 for 123A because you are the first unit of many), not having the postcode, etc. can be a cause for confusion for the postie and therefore they aren’t able to deliver it.

The postal agency in our country has a very handy tool on their website that allows us to make sure the address we use is in the correct format and is a valid delivery address. So, if you aren’t sure if you’ve got your address correctly written or might be unsure what other necessary details need to be included, try your postal agency’s website and see if they have something like that. Or, check the FAQ to see what details need to be on the address so parcels get delivered.

We have the delivery times for domestic parcels memorised, also. The reason we have that memorised is that this is the time it takes for all parcels to be delivered around the country. Domestic parcel delivery times in our country are between 1 – 3 working/business days (rural areas takes a bit longer). So, when a parcel from overseas arrives into the country, we know we should start counting and expect our parcel within 3 working/business days. (Of course, it is only possible to start counting if you have a tracking number for your parcel that tells you that it has arrived into your country!) If we haven’t received our parcel by those domestic delivery times, then we know something’s holding it up or something’s gone wrong, so we’ll contact the seller to look into what has happened for us or even contact our local postal agency if the scans indicate the parcel is in the country. (With untrackable YC123456789YW Yanwen parcels, the tracking number is specific to Yanwen and the scans aren’t necessarily accurate, so it might be best to go back to the seller if you’re concerned or if it’s still within the times to lodge a dispute, wait a bit longer to see if it arrives. We see little reason for a Yanwen parcel to not be delivered if the Yanwen parcel is shipped by a postal agency you’ve had good experiences with and it’s not something that will be held in customs.)

And finally, we have the Chinese New Year holiday period in mind. We don’t ever think about buying something from Aliexpress.com around Chinese New Year because Chinese New Year is a huge holiday for China (as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries celebrating it). Chinese New Year falls between end of January to mid February and changes every year (the Chinese New Year dates changes because it goes according to the lunar calendar) and the holiday period is around two weeks, so there will be delays of two weeks (or more) around Chinese New Year.

Check out our post on the shipping methods we find most reliable!

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10 comments
  1. Question pls. All shipment in yanwen will go to postal serices of the destination country? Like in the philippines, post offices? Coz i supposed to receive a package shipped thru yanwen and it says there reached philippines september 4, 2017 but until now, no delivery. Its September 29 now and the company who sent it is not responding to my messages.

    1. @Giselle From experience, you can pretty much treat these Yanwen parcels as untracked parcels the moment they leave China. Having said that, our feeling is that the scans aren’t accurate. These parcels do go to your country’s local post office. If you tried contacting the company and that company is the final point of contact for any disputes and you’ve not gotten any response from them, then we’re not too sure where else you can go from there. We mainly purchase on the Aliexpress website. Our first point of contact is the seller. If we don’t get a response from the seller, we go to Aliexpress customer services and they usually take care of things. Are you not able to escalate your enquiry to some place higher?

  2. Hello,

    My package arrived in France since October 17, 2017, and since more news. The end of the track arrived at the airport France.
    Do you know how long it takes for me to arrive at home?
    Who pays for it after he arrives in France? because I have the impression that the tracking number is unique and that there is Yanwen that we can track the shipment.
    It is now 10 days that I have no news, should I worry?

    thank you

    1. @David: we’re not sure about the delivery times for parcels being sent from China to France, but our guess is that once a parcel arrives into France, the time it takes for the parcel to be delivered to your home would be the same time as the time it takes to deliver a domestic parcel.

      We treat Yanwen parcels like standard parcels being sent from China. Even though the Yanwen service looks to provide parcel tracking, we do find it’s not 100% reliable.

      So, treating Yanwen parcels as such, according to a 2015 report from China Post, the average time it takes a parcel to arrive from China to France is 17 Days, longest is 44 days from posting of the item. This should give you an idea of when to go back to the Seller to enquire about where your parcel is. If you find the Seller is unresponsive or if you have buyer’s protection and it’s about to expire, make sure to open a dispute before protection expires.

      As for who pays for it once the parcel arrives into France, unfortunately we aren’t familiar with this, but we suggest treating the item as a standard parcel going from China to France. Any tax/customs will probably be the same as the ones incurred by standard parcels which come in from China and go through France’s local postal network, which we believe is La Poste.

      Hope this helps.

  3. The reason the package took so long to get delivered after it arrived in NZ is because it was sitting in Customs. You see that a lot with cheaper Chinese Shipping Methods, they have a lower priority in our Customs Clearance process.

    A related note is that when a package says “In Transit to Local Depot” on NZPost Tracking website it is actually still going through Customs and has not been handed over to NZPost even though that message would make you believe it had.

  4. Thank You for this. A very informative article.

  5. Thanks very much — this was very informative!

    Two things that have changed since posting:

    1) New format (or formats?) for tracking numbers. I just got a tracking number beginning with UB and ending in YP

    2) The Yanwen tracking number is recognized by the US Postal Service, which is cool. (I’ll update with package progress if you’re interested)

    1. @Jason Thank you for the information. That’s very helpful information for Yanwen parcels going to the US! Interesting how the format changed. Let us know how it all goes!

  6. Hello Julia and Tania, my parcel status is not updated for 19 days. My last update saying “Hongkong- Can departed from origin”. Then there is no update after this. Last update was 20th Aug 19′, and today is 8th Sep 28 19′. Its Tracking no. PR039704266YP. Can you tell me something about this please?? I m worried.

    1. @Kashif Sultan Yanwen parcels can be slow to arrive. Sometimes after the departure from country of origin scan, sometimes the next and last scan you get is the delivered scan. This doesn’t just happen with Yanwen parcels, but also with other parcels. It happens with standard parcels. It’s best to go back to the seller and get information on the progress of your parcel if you are worried.

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