Postal address formats (romanized)

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

When providing an address to folks in the United States or other non-Chinese-speaking countries, is there a standard romanization format? Also, what can be left out of an address to keep it to a reasonable length for entering into on-line forms?

The best explanation I’ve found on-line is: http://jidanni.org/geo/house_numbering/taiwan_english_addresses.html

Using that site’s recommendations, I would romanize my address as:

100臺北市忠孝西路一段33號7樓

7F 33 ZHONGXIAO W RD SEC 1
TAIBEI 10041 TAIWAN

This looks the best to my (American) eyes and fits well into on-line forms, CRM systems, and labeling databases.

The Chunghwa Post site’s postal code look-up, however, puts the section number before the Street. If I did that, than I think I’d need to add the abbreviation “NO” for number to avoid confusion, but it makes the street line longer and a bit confusing (to my eyes):

7F 33 SEC 1 ZHONGXIAO W RD

-or-

7F NO 33 SEC 1 ZHONGXIAO W RD

I’m also confused about which Romanization system to use. My understanding is that the government is standardizing on Hanyu Pinyin, except for certain place names that may keep alternate spelling for historical/cultural reasons. The Chunghwa Post site gives options for both Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pin Yin. If I use Tongyong Pin Yin, then my address would be romanized as:

7F 33 JHONGSIAO W RD SEC 1
TAIPEI 10041 TAIWAN

or

7F NO 33 SEC 1 JHONGSIAO W RD

Does it really matter which romanization system I use? I’m familiar with Hanyu Pinyin, which makes it much easier for me to write out addresses using it, but I do not see Hanyu Pinyin used much domestically, such as on business cards. Is one form more likely to be mis-delivered than another?

2

Putting the section, lane and alley after the street name is the logical romanized usage, and also what you will see being done the majority of the time in the real world. Either way, the letter will get there. They jot down the Chinese address at the post office for the mail carriers. They seem to be pretty good at deciphering various misspellings, butcherings, etc, I doubt the difference between various romanizations will faze them.

3

Indeed they are, had lot’s of mail over the years that had wrong or only partial addresses, and yet it was delivered.

4

The most important part consist of the 5 number Zip Code. They can work it out from there, but you need to get it right.

5

you can even write “purple cloud rd” (紫雲) and it’ll get there (i’ve seen it done); i think they have specialists just to decipher English addresses.

6

Oh, and if you want to avoid the issue completely, get a P.O. Box, 300nt a year, really cheap.

7

As for what’s now official, see [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/hanyu-pinyin-to-be-official-in-2009/46886/151 post in another thread[/url].

On a practical level, probably the most important point is to use the 5-digit postal code. The order of the other elements isn’t such a big deal.

As for romanization systems, go ahead and use Hanyu Pinyin regardless of the city. And if the address is in Taipei, any other system could be counterproductive. (There’s less chance of HP being mistaken for another system’s spelling of a different or not easily recognized name – unlike, say, bastardized Wade-Giles.)

8

Here’s how I do it:

7F, No. 33, Zhongxiao W. Rd. Sec. 1
Taipei 10041, TAIWAN

I put the section after the street name.
For counties and municipalities, I use the traditional spelling (e.g. Taipei, Hsinchu).
For anything under county/municipality level, I use Hanyu Pinyin.
I leave the word “City” out of “Taipei City”, “Kaohsiung City”, etc.
I omit “ROC” at the end.
I use commas as separators.
I use a period for abbreviations, except for F.
I put a space after each comma, but not before.
And most importantly, I avoid Tongyong Pinyin like the plague.

YMMV

9

Uhm… 5 digit postal codes?
I have always used 220 for Banqiao. Does anyone know the 5 digit postal/zip code for Banqiao?

10

Yeah, that’s kinda the point of them. Banqiao’s got half a million people, so just one postal code hardly suffices.

That depends on where exactly you live. Try this: 3+2 Find a Zip Code.

11

Oh for crying out loud admins this is getting ridiculous. The pinyiniser is really wasting posters’ time and making them look silly. Is this not important to you?

12

I’ve only started using the postal code. My wife used to give me a hard time when I asked for the full postal code saying that nobody in Taiwan uses them, esp. the 3+2. So it was funny the other day when we were at the post office and the clerk gave her a hard time that there was no post code and gave her a directory and made her look it up.

She also hates it when I use Pin Yin for addresses, but that is the easiest for me to ensure consistency and not have to look up the romanization each time, and it IS official now (at least one of two official systems). For marital peace, however, I spell Taipei with a “p” instead of Taibei with a “b”.

13

Thanks Cranky. I have been using 234 for Yonghe because that’s all that’s on the mail we get, but now I see it should be 23450. How silly of me.

I’m also looking at the postal information for work. But I have a question. If a company is international and has branches in China as well as Taiwan (and Europe and America), will it piss off China if you put Taiwan (R.O.C.)? I’m afraid I don’t keep up with the politics of Taiwan and China.