yeah, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw that line
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You can also find some used books there. I found the Chinese edition of the complete records of the Japanese Castle Games as well as an edition of Wangyou Qingle Ji from the 1990s.
OK, I had no problems getting some books out of China. They arrived in Australia a couple of days ago: see My first Taobao purchase: assorted Chinese tsumego books • Life In 19x19
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Did you use WePay or card?
PayPal. That’s one reason why I went with ParcelUp, so I didn’t have to share my card number.
I have received the books that I ordered using https://joyabuy.com/
With shipping and customs to Europe the costs is more than doubled. It seems that a book that costs 5 $ in China will with shipping and customs in the end cost almost 15 $.
Joyabuy is only an agent that buys stuff for you in China and then you must separately make a parcel containing the stuff you bought.
A mistake I made was that I had not only books in my parcel but other stuff which also had separate restrictions. You still have many shipping options when your parcel contains book (although some shipping options are excluded since the shipping company does not want to deal with the problem of possible restrictions on the export of books). There are also many companies that refuse to ship things that contain magnets (this includes like magnetic go travel sets) and many refuse to ship electronic devices that needs batteries even if no battery is included.
It is probably easier to find the best shipping options when your parcel only contain one category of goods (e.g., books).
UPDATE: I see that what you pay extra is not import duty but VAT, since there is still no import duty on shipments valued at less than 150 euros to the EU (although they are discussing changning this), but since 2021 you have to pay VAT on all imported goods.
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I notice the following things:
There are more Japanese Go books that are pocket-sized which I like while Chinese Go books usually have a larger format.
Chinese practice books often lack the answers (it seems that you sometimes can access the answers online using a QR code).
Chinese Go books do not seem to adopt the common Japanese format that the answer to a problem is printed on the next page. However, the Chinese editions of classical Go problems that I got all have the proposed solutions printed on the same page as the problem which is a bit annoying (but I assume that it saves printing costs). Then there are both Japanese and Chinese books with Go Problems where the answers are printed in the end of the book.
I must say that I kind of prefer the pocked-sized Japanese Go problems books with the answer printed on the next page since they are easy to have with you and use when you suddenly have a couple of minutes free.
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All of the books that I bought have answers, although mostly in a separate section. This is also true of some Japanese books (for example, the Segoe/Go Seigen tesuji dictionary). Weiqi Life and Death Drills and the Lee Changho tesuji series have answers on the next page.
I do agree that, for the books I’ve seen so far, the Japanese ones are more nicely presented.
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I have at least two Chinese series where the answers are not printed in the book (in one case they are supposed to be available online using a QR code, which I find annoying). I think the problem is that I have two series that are completely new, so, of course, they are a bit more high tech than the older books (i.e., using online material etc.). One of the Series is the new textbooks used by Nie Weiping Go Academy, which does not have an answer section printed, and then another series with weekly practice where the answers are available online.
I see that this book, which I ordered, has the answers printed on the next page as I like: https://joyabuy.com/product/?shop_type=taobao&id=764679712091
The editing of the Japanese books is generally better, but the Chinese books are cheaper. What I find interesting is that there are basically the same Hanzi in both Chinese and Japense Go books (although sometimes simplified in Chinese), so it is actually just a limited set of Hanzi you must recognize to get the general idea of what is written in both Japanese and Chinese Go books.
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