Don’t lose medicine in China

Before I arrived in Weihai, one of my medicines went missing, possibly somewhere in transit.  I didn’t leave it at home—Joe checked.  The problem was critical—it was something I take to manage side effects of another medication, but ideally I’d have it.

Joe called my internist’s office, got a replacement, and shipped it to the English Department here via Fed Ex.  This was not cheap—a bit over $100, but we had solved the problem.

Not so fast.  Foreign medicines are viewed with deep suspicion here, and the package was delayed in customs. FedEx attempted to reach me, but they did not have my Chinese cell phone number.  Instead they called Joe in America, and he supplied the number, but when I tried to call FedEx back, I reached a customer service representative in Mexico. When he couldn’t help me, I was referred to another customer service representative, this time in El Salvador. He couldn’t help me either, but he gave me a number for customer service in China which turned out not to be working. When I called back again, I was given another three numbers, one of which was for a cell phone belonging to a clerk, and it actually worked.  But the clerk had limited English and could not understand me. Her supervisor’s English was better, and she emailed me multiple forms which I had to print out, complete, and photograph. They also requested a copy of my passport so they could match the name on the medicine bottle with my passport.  I would have to pay duty. They also wanted my university supervisor’s picture ID, since he would sign for the package.

“They’re trying to keep out drugs,” said one of my friends.  “But drug dealers are way more efficient than the government, so they pick on people like you.”