Olympics 2008

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BEIJING — In today's adventure, I went to the post office. This was not originally on the agenda.

As readers of the blog are aware, I, like all of us covering the Olympics, received a backpack full of stuff from the organizers, and yet more stuff at the media village.

Much of it is not coming back with me, but the backpack is nice, and I have bought some souvenirs, none of which I want to lug to Australia and back. So this afternoon, I filled the backpack with things I bought and the freebies I'm keeping and went downstairs to the UPS office in the Media Village, planning to ship it back. After being quoted a price of 2,500 yuan ($364.41 — more than it cost four of us for the trip to the Great Wall), I said no thanks and went to the Media Village's branch of the China Post.

This was not quite like sending a package from Oxnard to Rancho Cucamonga. As soon as I explained what I wanted, the very polite and friendly postal employees proceeded — in a very polite and friendly manner to be sure — to pull open the carefully packed bag and look at every single item in it, opening boxes, checking compartments in the bag and the like.

I stifled the impulse to say I wanted to mail it, not get it cleared to sit in first class on the next flight home. Note to future China visitors: Privacy is not part of your mailing experience.

Anyway, after all that, they went in back and came out with a box which looked sturdy enough to withstand a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade — not often in my experience do you get a mailing box with visible wood grain — dropped the backpack in and sealed it up in a manner which looks impenetrable, but I suspect won't thwart postal inspectors here or in the U.S. and, after filling out a rather detailed shipping form, sent it off air mail.

Total cost to ship air mail (the lowest-priced option): 749.30 yuan, or about $109.22 — still more than I'd hoped, but way better than UPS. And it beats having an additional piece of luggage or risking overweight charges.

Estimated time of arrival: Two weeks.

I don't know what kind of aircraft takes two weeks to go from China to the U.S., but I don't really want to find out.

— Check out David Lassen's blog from Beijing at blogs.VenturaCountyStar.com/lassen.