Ok, I had no idea where to put this topic.

My girlfriend is coming to visit me in Shanghai over Christmas from Canada. I bought her a ring as a Christmas present, and I had it sent to a friend in Canada also. We were thinking instead of fedexing it to me, hiding it in something and my friend will say its a present for me and place it in her luggage. (My mother was visiting my girlfriend and also packed a bag full of stuff to bring to me, so I was thinking to just put it in there).

Should I be concerned over customs/declarations/her not knowing what is inside if they ask her? What about safety of the gift, should I be worried about that?

I will just fedex it if she could have problems, but if there is no issue why not save that 100cdn.

FWIW the value of the ring is 500cdn, and I alraedy paid 70 shipping from the US. I hate shipping!

The chances of being shaken down at Customs are remote. As for fedexing, China has laws forbidding the importation of precious metals, and that includes jewelry. Having said that, I've shipped some valuable pieces here from the US by simply listing them as "costume jewelry" and lying about their true worth. The packages arrived intact and unscrutinized. But, as I say, no one is likely to ask her anything going through Customs.

Yeah I usually never have a problem going through customs, but I'm worried that if they see the shape of a ring on the xray machine, they will investigate to see if its some expensive diamond ring or something.

I was just thinking about it over lunch and decided to pay the shipping costs for peace of mind, but now you've got me worried about shipping it haha! One of the reasons I wanted to ship it, was to have it insured.

I will look into those importing laws.

Thanks,

any more suggestions are welcome. I wish I thought this through more before I ordered it to Canada, but too late for that.

Have the person bringing it just wear it in. Problem solved. Just make sure that they don't put it on a small finger (so it won't haphazardly fall off).

How did you end up getting it in? Has she come yet?