Delivering post abroad

[Oompa Loompa]

How does post get delivered abroad to countries that don't use the alphanumeric system? e.g. a letter from the UK to China

[dzug]

Assuming you've written the address in English, when it gets to China someone in their Post Office will translate it ready for local delivery. Vice versa as well.

[Laura-sakura]

Chinese, Japanese, koreans etc are taught the alphabet at school. Virtually everyone would be able to read the address and understand it.

[WoWo]

I think the general form is to put the Country in English and the rest in whatever language is appropriate. That way it's easy for both sides because it can be sent quickly to the right country without need for translation and then once there the address can again be read without any problems.

[Postdog]

and I thought they looked in the yellow pages.....

[rojash]

Here in Greece, most people can read English at least well enough to recognize local the names of local towns. However, it's also quite common for the postman to just drop foreign mail at any house where a foreigner is known to live. We quite often get mail for total strangers who live in an entirely different village.