China address format & examples

Thanks to the Chinese manufacturing industry, you likely have several things that were made in China. You don’t want to seem ungrateful, so you’re wondering how to address a letter to China to thank them! Put down your chopsticks so you can more easily browse our Chinese address examples here and try our suite of address validation tools for addresses in China below. Just enter an address, and we'll format, standardize, and validate the address faster than you can say hotpot!

Hold onto your tea, because before we get started, here’s a note on transliteration: Address transliteration is the process of converting address characters in one alphabet (in this case, simplified Chinese characters) to another (English or Latin characters) while still preserving the intended tone and representation of the words. In order to understand how Chinese addresses work, you don’t necessarily need to put your Chinese address in English (Or put your English address in Chinese, for that matter). You just need to know how to write a Chinese address in an acceptable format.

While you may not need to TRANSLATE your Chinese addresses, you may be interested in transliterating them. In other words, transliteration is using Latin characters to represent the phonetics of simplified Chinese words. Transliteration is a form of formal address formatting that we use to bridge language barriers while maintaining mailability and accuracy, and this is one of the countries where Smarty offers transliteration beyond the basic plan if requested.

Let’s explore some of the basics. China’s address format for shipping or mailing messages should be written this way:

1. Addressee line - The recipient's full name, using appropriate titles like "先生 (xiānsheng)" (Mr.) or for women, their full name followed by "女士 (nǚshì)" (Mrs.).
2. SubBuilding and building name - The sub-building name goes here, followed by the building name. They should be included in that order without separating punctuation.
3. Dependant locality and street name - Include the dependent locality and street name without separating punctuation.
4. Postal code and locality - Again, on a new line, include the postal code, followed by the locality without any separating punctuation. (I’m noticing a theme here…)
5. Country - Write "CHN" in all caps on the last line.

Grab a few baozi and settle in because we’ll get even more technical with Chinese address formats.