Christine was strolling down a narrow street in Beijing's 798 Art Zone when she came across a store with a round lantern hung high above its door. Painted on the lantern were the image of a panda and red-inked words in Chinese and English: "798 Art & Travel Post."

Christine remembered her promise to send a postcard to her son, Arthur, in France. In the store, she found hundreds of elegant postcards.

Having picked one, she asked if the store could have it delivered. The girl behind the counter said "Yes" and went on to explain that she could send it "slow delivery," to arrive on a specific date of her choosing in the future. It was early October and Arthur's birthday was in two months. It would be wonderful if he got a card from China on his birthday, Christine reckoned.

The fee paid, Christine made for the door, but she turned and asked again, "Will it arrive on that day?"

"Don't worry. Definitely," the girl said.

Panda Slow-Delivery, as the store is known, sits among the outdated factories in northeast Beijing. The area has been developed over the past eight years into a place for innovative artists. The zone has no regular green-colored China Post office, so Panda SD fills the gap. But the main attraction of Panda SD is its slow delivery.

One couple wrote to their baby who was expected to be born in July next year. They hoped the special mail would be delivered about the same time. An elderly Taiwanese man fighting cancer sent a postcard to his unborn grandchild. Most customers sent cards to themselves, relatives or friends. Many asked for their mail be delivered in one to three years.

One young man wanted his words for his father to be read in 2046. An engaged couple asked to receive their card in 2059 on their golden wedding anniversary.

Panda's service is limited to letters and postcards. Customers can post the cards sold at the store or cards they bring in. Each item is stamped with a red-inked seal bearing the Panda SD logo. It contains a space for the delivery date, which might be weeks, months, years or decades later.

The mail is expected to arrive exactly at the agreed time. Most items are delivered through China Post, as registered mail. As conditions vary in different regions or countries, Panda SD has taken pains to research the services. As the actual journey is still out of its control, inaccurate delivery times are still possible. But Zhao Yue, co-owner and creative director of Panda SD, says the store has received no complaints yet.

As well as the normal China Post postage, Panda SD charges for keeping and forwarding the mail for delivery. It takes 9 yuan for each slow mail to be delivered later this year; 10 yuan for a delivery in 2010; 11 for 2011 and so on. The letter for 2046 costs the sender 46 yuan plus normal postage.

The Panda SD rates were set "just for fun," Zhao says, and were not meant to reflect the actual cost of safekeeping and forwarding. As business boomed, the managers considered revising the prices as they had made no serious evaluation of the risk of postage cost inflation.

Zhao says they guarantee the security of mail to be delivered far in the future by keeping it in a rented bank safe deposit box. Each item is kept secret in a sealed envelope to maintain privacy. Panda SD keeps a confidential record of the customer's contact information.

"We want our customers to feel very secure about leaving their special mail with us," says Zhao, a law graduate. "We have pledged to do our best to deliver the mail, even if the company no longer exists at that time."

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed