Thank you

You could do it at the dinner table, but undoubtedly there will be other guests, and you don’t want to feel like you’re excluding anyone.

So once you enter the house and drop off your bags, just present the gift then, and then go off to dinner.

Different story in the mountains of Yunnan, where even in the capital city of Kunming of over a million people, there wasn’t a Starbucks. (Not that Starbucks is good, but usually a Starbucks in a Chinese city symbolizes growth and internationalism.)

It’s funny you mention Mac N Cheese, because my brother sent me some too, but after eating so much Chinese food for a year, the Macaroni and Cheese tasted terrible — like chemicals, especially the bright neon orange ‘cheese’ mix.

So, I loved coffee so my family sent Blue Bottle and Philz Coffee from San Francisco. I also needed shoes, so you could tell her to go to Zappos and pick out some shoes — order them to you, and then you send them to China.

Again, I don’t really know what Shanghai *doesn’t* have, and it really depends on what your friend likes. Chocolate (See’s, or even store brands would be better than the norm in China).

You could also go to the local grocery story and pick up a bunch of canned goods that are purely American (soups, pastas, etc) — but that would be pretty heavy.

My brother sent me a tool kit and a frying pan, and the shipping was $100. But I have to say, that was pretty cool. Or you could send big coffee mugs, or a coffee press (Bodum). Those were hard to come by in Yunnan.

Even though clothes are abundant and cheap in China, you could send a Timbuk2 bag, or North Face/Marmot/REI jacket, or something else that would remind her of home. Especially if it is cold.

Of course, electronics are cheaper in the US (especially if you go with Amazon or B&H) — much cheaper than in China. For example, when I was there, I think they had the Nikon D70 for twice the price as it sold in the US — so if she is into iPods, or a Chinese-English translator, or cameras, or anything else electronic, that would be cool for her — also, these would be 110-220v, so everything would work in China.

Lastly, you could send a bunch of photos of people that she knows and write a nice letter. I remember a bunch of my friends on tour sent me a movie that recorded on their laptop, saying “Hello, we miss you, etc”, and just seeing them was pretty cool.

You might consider telling her to start a blog (like this one!) — that always helps to keep people connected. If she’s into Twitter (and if Twitter is not blocked in China), get her on that and keep in touch.

If she smokes, send her a bunch of her favorite American cigarettes, as those are hard to get and expensive in China.

Also, pretty much anything in the candy isle at your local Walgreen’s is not in China (besides Snickers bars and Dove Chocolate), if she has a sweet tooth, you could raid all the high fructose corn syrup candies and mail her those. Potato chips don’t send well, but the Chinese have their own versions of potato chips, so if she likes Funyons or those orange sticky finger chips, China doesn’t have those.

That’s about as good as I can do without knowing her.

If you tell us which city we can help customize a gift, also any detail about the parents (Beijing bankers vs. laborers from the countryside).

Are you close to a Whole Foods (in the states)?

Learned alot from reading posts. Thank you.

If they are a Chinese academic delegation from China, then this is our advice:

If they smoke, you can give them cigarettes. Go find the best, most expensive cigarettes in Chicago.

If they do not smoke, then you can give a bottle of expensive hard liquor (whiskey, XO, etc) or wine.

I know it sounds strange, but this is the advice. If they do not smoke or drink, then I don’t know. But this is what would happen in China.