As to the foreign expert's certificate, the school did organize one for me (I presume this is a requirement for a teacher to get a working visa), but I was never shown or given it.

The horrible woman actually gave me a letter confirming that I had a foreign expert's certificate, and it was cancelled, but it was not adequate for customs. They wanted a copy of the original expert's certificate.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Like I alluded to in my earlier post, the problem can be avoided if you choose a port with laxer requirements. I was originally planning to ship out of a northern port, as I have some belongings there at a friend's place, but will get my belongings trucked to kunming, and then go via guangzhou which is no problem.

hope this helps people in the future.

So for posterity's sake, I wasn't able to get the document I needed as it was more than a year out of date and they don't keep records for more than a year.

However, I have managed to work it out. Apparently the customs in the port it was originally going out of is more strict, and by changing ports I'll be able to ship it with minimal documentation.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm going to try to get the certificate this afternoon. Of course, the one person who can help me wasnt' there.

Will try to find a foreigner to help me if that fails (Chinese people can't ship containers overseas unless they have overseas residence).

I'm not shipping business things, and I was formerly working for an NGO, so I can't do much there. My new employer is paying for my relocation, so I'm going to crack on.

There's a BBC app that provides live bbc tv news that will probably do the trick if you have i'dongxi. Haven't found the same for android, but haven't looked too hard either.