How to get all of it home

The videos cut from "everything is so cheap" to "look what I bought" without showing the middle: customs at the other end, an airline allowance, and a suitcase that will not close.

This is the middle.

Carry, check, or ship

Carry: anything with a lithium battery, anything fragile, and anything you cannot replace. Phones, drones, cameras, glasses, perfume.

Check: clothing, shoes, packaged tea, stationery — heavy, robust, and not a disaster if the bag is delayed.

Ship: designer toys in boxes, anything bulky, and anything you bought more of than you expected. A parcel is usually cheaper than an excess-baggage fee and arrives without you carrying it.

Shipping from Shanghai

Every post office and most courier shops will pack and send internationally. Fabric-market floors in the South Bund do it routinely and will handle the paperwork for you.

Take the tracking number and a written list of contents before you leave the counter. Declare the real value — under-declaring is what turns a delayed parcel into a seized one.

The hotel parcel trick

Order before you arrive and have it delivered to the hotel. Many hotels hold parcels for guests as a matter of course; a message ahead asking them to hold one is normal and is answered positively.

This is why some visitors now travel with an empty case: the shopping arrives at the hotel, the walking happens in between, and the packing happens once.

Customs at the other end

Your country has a duty-free allowance and you are expected to know it. Above it, you declare and pay. This is the part of the trend that gets people fined, and it is entirely predictable in advance.

Keep receipts. A phone photograph of every receipt, in one album, is the difference between a two-minute declaration and an argument.

Things that do not travel

Some herbal and food products are restricted at destination. Fresh food, seeds, and anything containing animal product are the usual problems.

Check your own country’s import rules on herbal remedies before buying a suitcase full of them. It takes two minutes and it is the least glamorous, most useful thing on this page.

Verdict

Ship the heavy and the fragile, carry the batteries and the perfume, and never let a made-to-measure garment leave the country in the hold.