Sending Travel Luggage on ahead

[tjrundy]

Hello,

On a recent business trip to our office in Shenzhen (from London), I took a week hols in Thailand on the way to break up the journey. Rather than lugging the 2 weeks worth of luggage (esp business clothes) around the beach, I took only a hand-luggage case and sent via UPS my clothes and files on ahead.

I mistakenly also sent a portable printer, which seems to have flagged up the case going through Chinese customs. It made it there in the end, but I had to pay some GBP 30 duties and taxes, even though the commercial invoice was marked as personal luggage.

I thought I'd try my luck on the way back, and again because my clothes were of a reasonable European brand (though after 1 week of 30 deg. humidity without any laundering, they were clearly used), there was trouble getting them out of China this time.

I'm not a great fan of lugging heavy suitcases around, particularly when traveling with my young family. Therefore, I wondered if anyone had any advise about sending 'luggage on ahead'. I chose UPS, simply because my company has an account that I could use without any personal cost...

Doing this domestically makes sense, particularly if traveling by train for a long holiday - any thoughts about tweaking this approach for smoother international travel?

Cheers,

Tom.