International courier from Bangalore to China. Free home pickup.
Collected from your Bengaluru door at any hour, classified, documented and flown out of Kempegowda on the DTDC International network. 7–12 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,300 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST. This is the most paperwork-sensitive lane we run out of this city, and almost none of that difficulty is in the flying.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to a Chinese address.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+, any hour of the day or night. Most of what we collect on this lane comes out of the hardware belt — Electronic City, Peenya, Whitefield, Bommasandra — and a fair share of it is booked after a factory call with a vendor in a time zone two and a half hours ahead. We bring tape, anti-static wrap and the international airway bill.
Classify & document.
Every line on the invoice gets an HS code, a plain-English description and a real value. Chinese customs reads the classification, not the marketing name — and the phrase sample, no commercial value is the single fastest way to have a parcel pulled for examination. We work the codes out with you before the box is taped shut.
BLR gateway.
Straight into the DTDC International facility and out through Kempegowda. Bengaluru flies international from its own airport, so a China-bound consignment is not sitting on a truck to Mumbai or Delhi for a day or two before the clock even starts. Past the gateway it is the same air leg as anyone else's.
Chinese customs (GACC).
Clearance at the arrival gateway — Shanghai-Pudong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen or Beijing depending on routing. GACC pulls a proportion of inbound parcels for physical examination against the declaration, and a flagged consignment adds three to seven days. The recipient's Chinese ID number and a working mainland mobile number on the AWB shorten this considerably.
Doorstep delivery.
Last mile through the local delivery partner. Give us the address written in Chinese characters if the recipient can supply it — a romanised address is accepted but routes slower. POD reaches you on WhatsApp the same day it lands.
Starting rates. What you actually pay depends on weight.
Billing takes actual or volumetric weight, whichever comes out higher, and adds the international fuel surcharge current on the day you book. GST sits on top of that. Hardware ships in protective packaging, so on this lane volumetric weight decides the bill more often than not.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (7–12 days, door)from ₹1,300 / kg
- Economy (12–18 days, door)from ₹950 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 2 kg consignment — an enclosure prototype and two populated boards, foam-packed at about 35 × 30 × 15 cm:
- Volumetric3.15 kg (billed over actual)
- Express, 3.15 kg × ₹1,300≈ ₹4,095
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹1,024
- + GST 18%≈ ₹921
- Approx total, express≈ ₹6,040
Indicative only. Fuel surcharge and rate cards change. Ask us to check volumetric before you pack — a tighter box is often the cheapest optimisation available.
What you’ll need at pickup.
On most lanes documentation is housekeeping. On this one it is the job. China asks for more classification detail than any other destination we handle, and a vague invoice is what turns a nine-day transit into a sixteen-day one.
KYC of the sender
Any one photo ID in the name that goes on the AWB — Aadhaar, passport or driving licence will all do. For a company consignment we also take the firm's GSTIN and the name of the person authorising the shipment. We photograph the ID at pickup; it is not retained beyond DTDC's own record.
Invoice with HS codes, line by line
Not optional here. Each item needs its own line: description, quantity, unit value, total value and the correct HS heading. A printed circuit assembly, a machined housing and a power adaptor are three different classifications even when they ship as one product. Where you are unsure we look the heading up with you rather than guessing at the counter.
Recipient details that customs can verify
For a personal parcel, the consignee's Chinese ID number and mainland mobile. For a commercial consignment, the importing company's name exactly as registered and a contact who can answer a customs query in Chinese. Medicines need the sealed strip, the prescription with the doctor's registration number, and the recipient's name matching their ID — no injectables, no liquids.
What China doesn’t let in.
These are GACC and Chinese import-control rules, not our caution. Consignments sent against them are seized or destroyed, and in the serious categories the liability falls on the consignee inside China. The list below is weighted towards what a Bengaluru sender actually puts in a box.
Don’t even try
- Radio, GPS and encryption hardware — the one that catches this city. Development boards with unlicensed radio modules, GPS trackers, LoRa and RF transceivers, and anything with a proprietary encryption implementation fall under Chinese import controls. A hobby-grade tracker is held exactly like a commercial one.
- Drones and drone components — flight controllers and camera gimbals included, whatever the declared purpose.
- Used and second-hand electronics — China restricts imports of used electronic goods as waste. Do not send an old laptop or a returned unit "for repair"; it will not come back.
- Politically sensitive printed or recorded material — books, films and media on subjects the state restricts. Parcels are opened and printed matter is read.
- Narcotics of any kind — penalties are severe and fall on the person receiving the parcel.
- Counterfeit or unauthorised branded goods — including unbranded stock carrying someone else's mark, and cryptocurrency mining or cold-wallet hardware.
- Adult material — prohibited outright.
- Aerosols, all liquids, lithium cells above 100 Wh — universal courier rules, and this lane carries more loose cells than any other we run.
Allowed with care
- New electronics without radio or crypto features — enclosures, cables, mechanical assemblies, sensors, passive components. Declare make, model, quantity, unit value and HS code.
- Silk sarees and made-up textiles — Kanjeevaram, Mysore silk and cotton garments. Give fabric, piece count and a fair value; under-declaring a textile consignment is a reliable way to be examined.
- Printed catalogues, spec sheets and marketing collateral — non-political commercial material moves without trouble. Declare the title and quantity.
- Books — technical and general titles clear normally; avoid bulk quantities of religious literature, which is treated differently from a single personal copy.
- Sealed dry snacks in small personal quantities — chakli, mixture, dry podi. Food is the weak point of this lane rather than a free pass: expect scrutiny, keep it factory-sealed with a full ingredient list, and keep it small.
- Prescription tablets — sealed strip, prescription with registration number, recipient's name matching their ID. No injectables, no liquid formulations.
Boards, tooling, and a supply chain that runs both ways.
Most of our China traffic out of Bengaluru is business. This is not a diaspora lane — it is the parcel layer of a hardware supply chain, and it behaves accordingly.
Prototypes to contract manufacturers
Golden samples, mechanical prototypes and first-article parts going to CM partners around Shenzhen, Dongguan, Suzhou and Ningbo. Foam-packed, photographed before sealing, and invoiced at a value the customer is willing to insure. Tell us the CM's customs broker if they have one; it is the fastest clearance path on this lane.
Tooling, jigs and fixtures
Test jigs, moulding inserts and fixture plates from the Peenya and Bommasandra engineering belt. Heavy for their size, so volumetric rarely bites — but they classify awkwardly and the HS heading needs deciding before pickup rather than at the airport.
Sourcing documents and signed originals
Purchase orders, signed agreements, inspection reports and quality certificates for buying offices in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Always express, always tracked. A courier document beats registered post by a week on this route and it is visible the whole way.
Trade-fair material
Catalogues, banners, display samples and giveaway stock shipped ahead of the Canton Fair in April and October, and ahead of the Shenzhen electronics shows. Book three weeks out — the fortnight before a major fair is when the lane is busiest and inspections run slowest.
Family parcels to a small diaspora
There is an Indian community in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and Guangzhou, and it is mostly people posted there for work. Clothing, festival wear, sealed dry snacks in modest quantities, children's books. Smaller volumes than any of our western lanes, and the paperwork discipline is the same as for a commercial box.
Student parcels
Indian students in China are concentrated in the medical universities, and their parcels look like student parcels everywhere — textbooks, bedding, clothing, sealed dry food. Put the university and hostel block on the address, plus the student's Chinese mobile, because a campus gate will not accept a parcel it cannot phone in.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The AWB reaches you on WhatsApp the moment the consignment is booked into DTDC International, whatever the hour — the HSR Layout desk is staffed around the clock. Track it at dtdc.in. Expect two silent stretches: the air leg, and the GACC examination window, which on this lane is longer than most and can run several days without a scan. If the status turns to held or pending information, send us the AWB — that is nearly always a classification or value query and it is answerable from our side.
Asked most often on this lane.
We're sending a hardware prototype to our contract manufacturer in Shenzhen. What actually goes wrong?
Three things, in order of frequency. First, the invoice says sample, no commercial value — customs anywhere dislikes this, and Chinese customs treats it as a reason to open the box and decide a value for you. Put a real number on it, even a modest one. Second, the HS classification is wrong or generic: a product that is really a machined housing plus a populated board plus an adaptor gets declared as one line called "electronics", and examination follows. Third, and the expensive one, there is a radio module on the board. LoRa, GPS, Wi-Fi modules and RF transceivers fall under Chinese import controls, and a development board with one soldered on is treated exactly like a commercial radio import. Tell us what is on the board before we book it and we will tell you whether it is going to fly.
Why does Chinese customs want my cousin's ID number and a mainland phone number?
Because inbound personal parcels are matched against a verifiable consignee. GACC wants the receiving person identifiable, and the delivery partner wants a number it can call. Without an ID number a personal parcel can still clear, but it sits in the queue for manual handling and that is where days disappear. Two other address details are worth the trouble: ask your recipient to send the address written in Chinese characters, and ask for the postal code. A romanised address is accepted and does get delivered — it just goes through a slower, more human path at the far end.
Can I send filter coffee and dry snacks to a friend studying there?
In a small, factory-sealed, fully-labelled quantity, usually yes — but be clear that food is the soft spot on this lane rather than a routine item, and we would not build a parcel around it. China's food-import rules are written for commercial consignments and personal food parcels are assessed case by case, which in practice means a higher chance of being opened and a real chance of part of the contents being removed. Send the coffee powder and the chakli as a small part of a parcel of clothes and books, keep every wrapper sealed with its ingredient list visible, declare each item by name on the invoice, and do not send anything with dairy, meat or moisture in it at all.
Tell us the rough weight and where in China it is going.
Talk to us before you seal the carton.
Message us on WhatsApp with what is going in the box and where it is headed, or call the desk. HSR Layout answers 24×7, and on this lane the classification conversation is worth having first.