Moving House in Beijing: Movers, Costs & Truck Rules

Moving flat in Beijing is mostly straightforward and occasionally bizarre. The difficulty is rarely lifting furniture — it is that a lorry cannot legally reach your building inside the Fifth Ring Road between 6am and 11pm, that many compounds require you to book the lift and leave a deposit before a sofa is allowed to move, and that leaving China with your own household goods is a customs procedure with a six-month deadline. This guide covers the three moves a foreign resident actually makes: across town, out of China at the end of a posting, and into China at the start of one. Rules are cited where they are written down. Prices are market rates that shift with season, distance and fuel, so read them as a shape rather than a quote.

Three tiers of mover, and which one you want

Beijing's moving market splits into three rough tiers, and the one you want depends almost entirely on who does the lifting. At the bottom is a platform van: you get a vehicle and a driver, and everything else is a tick-box. In the middle are internet moving brands that quote before anyone arrives and usually include packing. At the top are the traditional city movers, whose price includes two or three porters, dismantling and reassembly of beds and wardrobes, and an insurance policy that is actually worth claiming against. Language is the practical tiebreaker: all three book in Chinese, so if your Chinese is not up to negotiating a floor fee on a doorstep, get a colleague to make the call and ask for the quote in writing.

Platform van — 货拉拉 (Huolala) — Cheapest by a distance. A driver and a van; packing, carrying and 拆装 (dismantling) are only done if you tick them in the app. Hotline 95036. Best for a studio with boxes you have already packed.
Internet moving brands — 蓝犀牛, 自如搬家 — Quoted up front from photos or a video survey, usually with packing materials and basic dismantling included, booked through a WeChat mini-program. Better if you want a firm number before anyone arrives.
Traditional movers — 四通搬家, 兄弟搬家, 利康鸿运 — Two or three 师傅 (porters), full packing, 拆装 of beds and wardrobes, and goods-in-transit insurance. Pricier, but the damage claim is real and the crew knows Beijing compounds.
What does not change between tiers — You still need the lift booked, the truck legally able to reach your gate, and a written quote that names floor fees and 拆装 before the first box moves.

What a Beijing move costs

Every quote is assembled from the same four parts: a 起步价 (base rate) that includes a set number of kilometres, a per-kilometre rate once you exceed it, a floor fee if there is no lift, and surcharges for heavy or awkward items. Published rate cards from the big Beijing movers put a 面包车 (small van) at ¥128 including 7 km, a 金杯 (Jinbei van) at ¥185 and a high-roof 金杯 at ¥260 including 10 km, a 4.2-metre box truck at ¥480 including 10 km with two or three porters, and a 6.2-metre truck at ¥1,000 including 10 km. Market surveys put a typical one-bedroom city move at roughly ¥300–600 and a two-bedroom at ¥600–1,200 before extras. Dismantling beds and wardrobes is the classic add-on, commonly ¥200–500, and weekends, month-end and the summer moving peak all carry a premium. Treat all of it as an indication and get the number on paper before moving day.

面包车 (van, around 500 kg) — From ¥128 including 7 km, about ¥5 per km after. One 师傅 (porter). Enough for a studio with no white goods.
金杯 / 高顶金杯 (Jinbei van) — From ¥185–260 including 10 km. A one-bedroom with boxes and a few appliances.
4.2 m box truck — From ¥480 including 10 km, about ¥7 per km after, with two or three 师傅. The standard two-bedroom vehicle.
6.2 m truck — From ¥1,000 including 10 km, about ¥9 per km after. Three-bedroom or a whole house.
无电梯楼层费 (no lift) — Roughly ¥12–24 per floor on a van and about ¥40 per floor on a 4.2 m truck. A lift makes this free — a walk-up six-floor move is where budgets break.
拆装费 (dismantling) and 平移费 (long carry) — Dismantling beds and wardrobes typically ¥200–500; if the truck cannot park within about 50 m of your entrance, the long carry is charged by the metre.
Timing premium — Weekends, month-end and July–September add roughly 20–50%. A Tuesday morning is the cheapest slot in the week.

The lorry ban: why your movers want to start at five

This is the most Beijing-specific thing about moving here, and it is the one that surprises people. According to the Beijing traffic management bureau, goods vehicles are banned from roads inside the Fifth Ring Road — the ring road itself excluded — from 06:00 to 23:00 every day, and on the Fifth Ring main road the same window applies to lorries with a rated load of 8 tonnes or more. Lorries registered outside Beijing are barred from roads inside the Sixth Ring Road from 06:00 to 24:00. Breaching it is recorded as 机动车违反禁令标志指示 — driving in breach of a prohibition sign — which costs ¥100 and one point on the licence. That is why central-Beijing crews quote early-morning or late-evening slots, and why a mover who cheerfully offers 10am inside the Third Ring is either holding a permit or planning to risk it.

The free daytime window — 23:00 to 06:00 inside the Fifth Ring. Practically, crews start at 05:00 or arrive after 23:00 — which is also why the noise rules below matter.
The permit route — New-energy lorries can hold a 昼运通行证 (daytime delivery permit) allowing 06:00–07:00, 09:00–16:00 and 19:00–23:00. The city's own policy note names 搬家公司 (moving companies) explicitly among the qualifying temporary needs.
Permit durations — 长期证 (long-term) lasts three months, 短期证 (short-term) one month, 临时证 (temporary) 7–15 days. The moving company applies, not you — ask which one they hold before you book a daytime slot.
Streets banned outright — Parts of Chang'an Avenue and a list of central streets exclude lorries 24 hours a day, permit or not.
District rules stack — Chaoyang, Haidian, Shijingshan and every outer district publish their own lorry exclusion zones. On-the-spot signage is what ultimately decides it.

Noise rules: when you are allowed to be loud

Beijing's noise rules are written about 装修 (renovation), not about moving, but 物业 (the property management office) enforce the same windows and neighbours will quote them at you. Article 35 of the Beijing municipal noise pollution measures bans noisy renovation work inside an occupied residential building all day on statutory rest days and public holidays, and on working days from 12:00 to 14:00 and from 18:00 to 08:00. Non-compliance draws a police warning, and a fine of ¥200–500 if the warning is ignored. For scale, the national standard GB 3096-2008 caps residential areas at 55 dB by day (06:00–22:00) and 45 dB at night (22:00–06:00). A move is not a renovation, so the letter of the rule does not bind you, but a crew banging a wardrobe down six flights at 23:30 will generate a complaint either way.

Best slot — A weekday, starting after 08:00 and finished before 12:00. Weekends, public holidays and the 12:00–14:00 lunch window are the worst choices.
Ask 物业 rather than assuming — Some compounds only allow moves on set days, and a few restrict them to set hours. A five-minute conversation prevents a stopped lift.
Protect the lift and lobby — Crews are expected to pad the lift interior and lobby floor. Damage to shared areas is what eats a 物业 deposit, not the flat itself.

Booking the lift and clearing the gate

The moving company handles furniture; the building is your problem. Most Beijing compounds have one service lift, and getting it reserved for two or three hours is a 物业 matter arranged days in advance, not something a crew can negotiate at the door. Expect a refundable deposit against damage to the lift or corridor, and get the refund condition written on the receipt. Equally worth confirming in advance is where the truck may actually stand — compounds with narrow gates or underground height limits will push the vehicle to the roadside, and the walk from there is what you are billed for.

预约电梯 (book the lift) — Tell 物业 the date and slot a week ahead. In single-service-lift towers it may be reserved for you for two or three hours.
搬家押金 (refundable deposit) — A few hundred yuan is common. Take a receipt with the refund condition written on it, and photograph the lift before the crew starts.
Parking and gate access — Confirm where the truck may stand and whether the gate is high enough. Beyond roughly 50 m from your entrance you are charged 平移费 by distance.
出门条 (gate pass) — Some compounds require a pass signed by 物业 before furniture leaves the site. Ask when you book the lift.
Walk-ups and 胡同 (hutong) courtyards — No lift means a per-floor charge, and narrow stairwells decide what furniture you can own. Measure before you buy the sofa.

What the crew will not carry

Two categories get refused, and knowing them in advance saves an argument on the doorstep. The first is liability: mover insurance covers furniture, not your personal irreplaceables. The second is safety and regulation: anything flammable, pressurised or perishable is refused by platform drivers outright, and several of the same items are prohibited on aircraft and across borders. Pack one bag that never leaves your side.

Documents, cash, jewellery, hard drives — Carry them yourself. Passport, residence permit, lease and the deposit receipt travel with you, not in the van.
Gas bottles, aerosols, open liquids — Refused by platform drivers. Also a security-check problem if you are flying — see what you can carry through Beijing checkpoints.
Pianos, safes, large aquariums — Quoted separately and usually handled by a specialist crew with its own equipment.
Soil, plants, seeds and fresh food — Crossing a border with soil or plant material is a quarantine matter, not a moving matter. Declaration does not make it allowable.
Pets — Arrange your own transport and check the carrier's rules well ahead of the move.

Getting rid of what you are not taking

Do not leave a mattress in the corridor and hope. Beijing's municipal commission of urban management runs an official mini-program called 京彩回收, available inside WeChat and the 京通 city-services app, which books doorstep collection of recyclables, bulky waste and renovation debris at published rates — around ¥0.8 per kilo for paper, ¥1 for metal, ¥0.8 for plastic and ¥0.5 for textiles, or ¥0.5 per kilo for a single mixed bag. Sofas, mattresses and wardrobes are booked under the bulky-waste option and priced per item by type. Selling first is usually worth more than paying for collection: a buyer who carries the item away costs you nothing.

京彩回收 — Search the name in WeChat or 京通. Choose the bulky-waste booking, fill in the address, pick a slot, and confirm the price with the recycling firm through the order page.
Sell before you book — Post furniture on 闲鱼 or 转转 a week ahead. Collection-for-free beats a collection fee, and expat WeChat groups move things fast in June and December.
Do not dump beside the bins — Bulky items left next to the bins can be billed back to the building and then to you. The sorting rules are set out in the Beijing waste-sorting guide.
Donate what is still good — Schools, community centres and second-hand groups take books, small appliances and children's items in usable condition.

Leaving China: your belongings are a customs matter

If you ship boxes home separately from your flight, China treats them as 分离运输行李, or unaccompanied baggage, and since 1 April 2025 this sits under Customs General Administration Order No. 276. Article 28 says goods shipped in must be declared when you enter the country and cleared within six months of your entry date, and goods shipped out must be cleared before you depart. The published procedure runs in five steps: pre-declare if you wish through the 海关进出境人员指尖服务 (Customs traveller declaration) mini-program or npc.chinaport.gov.cn; declare in person at the red channel on arrival and tick 以分离运输方式运进行李物品 (goods shipped separately); wait for the shipment to land; submit your passport, entry record, itemised list and the original stamped 申报单 (declaration form); and let Customs assess it. If you did not declare on arrival but can produce an entry record within six months, the paperwork can still be retro-fitted — but the duty-free allowance is lost.

The six-month clock — It starts on the day you enter China, not the day you ship. Ship late and the concession is gone.
Declare even when you are under the allowance — The declaration is what makes the shipment 分离运输行李 rather than unaccompanied cargo. Without it, the later paperwork is much harder.
Outbound is stricter — Goods shipped out must be cleared before you fly. Do not leave it to the final week of a lease.
12360 — The Customs hotline, in Chinese. Worth having a Chinese-speaking colleague make the call and take notes.
Prohibited regardless of declaration — Meat and dairy, aquatic products, soil, seeds and fresh produce cannot be shipped out or brought in on any paperwork.

Arriving: what your household goods are worth on paper

The duty-free allowance for incoming personal goods is smaller than most people expect. Non-resident travellers get ¥2,000 on goods intended to stay in China, while residents get ¥5,000, and anything arriving as 分离运输行李 is counted together with what you already cleared at the airport. A single indivisible item is assessed on its full value. Duty runs in four bands — 3%, 13%, 20% and 50% — with computers and digital cameras at 13%, textiles, bags and shoes at 20%, and tobacco, alcohol, jewellery, high-end watches and prestige cosmetics at 50%; assessments of ¥50 or less are waived. The full tables are in the guide to duty-free allowances and declaration.

¥2,000 for non-residents — Small. Any genuinely household-sized shipment will be assessed, so budget for duty rather than assuming it is free.
Used personal effects are the argument — Reasonable quantities of clearly used, clearly personal goods is the standard the rule is written around. Keep it plausible.
Inventory in both languages — Customs asks for a 分离运输行李物品清单. A bilingual packing list with approximate values speeds the assessment considerably.

Two weeks out — Book the lift with 物业 and get a written quote that names floor fees, 拆装 and the per-kilometre rate.
One week out — Photograph meter readings and the empty flat, and start the broadband transfer or account handover so you are not paying for a line you have left.
Moving day — Keep documents and valuables with you, photograph the lift before and after, and pay only once the crew has finished.
Within 24 hours of moving in — If you are on a visa, register the new address at the local 派出所 (police station). The clock starts when you move, not when the lease is signed.
Before you hand back the keys — Settle utilities, agree the deposit release in writing, and keep the receipt until the money actually lands.

Moving House in Beijing: Movers, Truck Rules, Costs and Customs