What it costs to move to China from the UK

How UK–China removal pricing is built up, what each shipment size costs to plan for, and the eight charges that quietly separate a cheap quote from a complete one.

Published 26 August 2026Last reviewed 26 August 2026Written by AE Movers

Every UK–China removal quote is built from one number: the volume of your shipment in cubic metres. Everything else — the freight rate, the packing labour, the destination handling — scales from it. So the first useful thing you can do is stop asking what a move to China costs and start working out how much you are actually shipping.

The calculator below does that, using per-item volumes we publish in full so you can check the arithmetic. Once you have a cubic-metre figure, the rest of this page tells you what that size of shipment involves and which charges to look for in any quote you receive.

We do not publish rates. Freight rates on this lane move with fuel, season, capacity and destination, and any number printed on a web page would be wrong within weeks. What we can give you — and do, below — is the structure of the cost and a checklist that makes two quotes genuinely comparable.

How a UK to China quote is built

A complete quote has four parts. Cheap quotes are usually cheap because one of them is missing, not because the mover is more efficient.

The four components of a UK–China removal quote and what drives each.
Component	What it covers	What drives the cost
UK origin charges	Survey, packing materials, packing labour, collection, export documentation, delivery to port	Volume, access at your property, how much packing you want
Freight	The sea or air movement itself	Volume, part load against full container, destination port, season
China destination charges	Port handling, deconsolidation, customs entry, inspection attendance, delivery, unpacking	Volume, destination city, distance inland, building access
Variables	Insurance, storage, crating, long carries, shuttle vehicles, duty	Your specific circumstances — which is why the survey matters

Note that the third column of the last row is the honest answer to "why can't you just tell me a price?". A quote issued without a survey is a quote that will be revised, and the revision is never downwards.

Work out your volume first

The volume calculator is the same survey inventory our own crews use — around 190 items, room by room, each with the volume and the packing method we would apply to it. Count what you are shipping and it gives you the cubic-metre figure this whole page is built on.

Tool

Volume calculator

Count your furniture and boxes room by room and get a cubic-metre total, with every per-item volume published in full.

Open the calculator →

Reference

The published inventory

All 190 items with volumes in m³ and cubic feet, and how each one is packed for an international move.

See the inventory →

What each shipment size involves

Volume determines how your shipment travels, which in turn determines its timeline and its cost profile. These are the bands we work in.

How shipment size maps to service, routing and timeline on the UK–China lane. Volumes and durations are planning figures.
Volume	Typical home	How it ships	Door-to-door planning range	Cost profile
Under 2 m³	Boxes and suitcases only	Excess baggage, groupage	8–14 weeks by sea, 1–2 by air	Dominated by the minimum charge — fill the space you are paying for
2–8 m³	Studio or one-bedroom	Part load (LCL)	10–14 weeks	Lowest cost per m³ starts to appear; still a small shipment
8–20 m³	Two-bedroom home	Part load (LCL)	10–14 weeks	The most common band. Consolidation waits drive the timeline
20–33 m³	Three-bedroom home	Part load or a 20ft container	8–14 weeks	Price both. The crossover sits in this band and moves with rates
33–67 m³	Four to five-bedroom home	40ft container	8–12 weeks	Best cost per m³, and the fastest, because consolidation is skipped

The eight charges that are often left out

This is the part of the page worth keeping. When you have two or three quotes in front of you, go through this list and ask each mover, in writing, whether the item is included. The answers will explain most of the price difference.

China destination charges. Port handling, deconsolidation, customs entry and delivery at the far end. A quote that covers you only to the Chinese port is not a door-to-door quote, however it is described. This is the largest and most common omission.
Customs inspection attendance. Inspection is routine. Someone has to attend, present the inventory and repack. Ask whether that is included or billed if it happens.
Marine transit insurance. Almost never included as standard. Carrier liability on international freight is calculated by weight and is nowhere near replacement value.
Long carry and shuttle charges. If the removal vehicle cannot park within a set distance of your door — at either end — there is a charge. Chinese apartment complexes frequently require a shuttle from a compound gate, and narrow UK terraces cause the same problem in reverse.
Lift and stair charges. Delivery to a high floor without a service lift, or with a lift too small for a sofa, costs more. Chinese residential lifts are often smaller than UK ones.
Crating. Mirrors, glass, marble, artwork and pianos need timber crates. Some quotes assume it, some price it as an extra after the surveyor sees the items.
Storage. At either end, and particularly the daily charges that accrue at a Chinese port if the shipment arrives before you can clear it.
Duty or tax assessed on inspection. No mover can absorb a ruling by Chinese customs. New goods in original packaging are the usual trigger — see the customs guide.

How to compare two quotes properly

Two quotes are only comparable if four things match. Check them in this order:

The volume. If one mover surveyed at 18 m³ and the other estimated 22 m³ from a phone call, you are not comparing prices, you are comparing guesses. Our published inventory lets you check both against the same standard.
The endpoint. Door to door, or door to port? Ask explicitly; "to Shanghai" can mean either.
The service level. Full export packing by a crew, or you pack the boxes? Unpacking and reassembly at the far end, or delivery to the room?
The exclusions. Run the list of eight above. Get the answers in writing.

A quote much lower than the others is telling you something. On a lane with a fixed cost floor — a container costs what it costs, port handling is tariffed, labour is labour — a quote well below the field usually means the scope is smaller, not that the mover is cleverer. Find the missing scope before you decide it is a bargain.

Six ways to spend less

Ship less. Obvious, and by far the most effective. Every cubic metre you do not ship saves origin cost, freight and destination cost at once. Beds, wardrobes and white goods are the usual candidates — see what we advise leaving behind.
Be flexible on the packing date. Consolidation is cheaper and faster when we can fit you to a container that is already filling.
Send one consignment. Two shipments pay two sets of fixed costs.
Get your residence permit timeline right. Storage and demurrage at a Chinese port are pure avoidable loss. Store in the UK instead if the paperwork is running late.
Pack densely. You pay for space, not weight, on sea freight. Half-empty cartons are charged as full ones.
Do not skip insurance to save money. It is a small proportion of the total and the only thing standing between you and a total loss you cannot recover.

Sources and how we checked this

Where the figures on this page come from, and what kind of figure each one is.

Volume figures — The Asian Express survey inventory, published in full on the volume calculator. Planning volumes for packed items, not measurements of your belongings.
Container capacities — Standard usable loading volumes for 20ft, 40ft and 40ft high-cube dry containers.
Transit ranges — Planning ranges for the UK to mainland China lane based on how the route is structured — packing, consolidation, sailing, clearance and delivery. Individual moves vary; these are not guarantees.
General Administration of Customs of the PRC — The authority for what is required to import personal effects into mainland China. Confirm current requirements there before you ship.
Asian Express International Movers — Operator entity, accreditations and the China office network referenced throughout this site.

Questions people ask before booking

How much does it cost to ship a container to China from the UK?

Container freight rates change constantly with fuel, capacity and season, so any published figure would mislead you. What is stable is the structure: a 20ft container holds about 33 m³ and a 40ft about 67 m³, and above roughly 25 m³ a container usually costs less per cubic metre than a part load. Ask us to price both — see sea freight.

Why will nobody give me a price over the phone?

Because the volume, the access at both ends and the destination city change the answer substantially, and a number given without those facts gets revised upwards later. A short video survey settles it and costs you nothing.

Is it cheaper to sell everything and buy again in China?

For beds, wardrobes, white goods and generic furniture, frequently yes. For books, kitchen equipment, children's things and anything with personal value, no. The household removals page sets out our category-by-category view — written by people paid by the cubic metre, so read it with that in mind.

Do I pay customs duty on my personal effects in China?

Used personal effects imported by a person taking up residence are treated differently from new or commercial goods, but treatment depends on your status, your documents and what is in the shipment. New items still in their packaging are the usual trigger for a duty assessment. See the customs guide and confirm current rules with Chinese customs.

When do I have to pay?

Terms are set out in your written quote. What matters more is knowing which charges could arise later — inspection, storage, duty, long carry — so there are no surprises. Those are listed above; ask us to confirm each one against your own quote.