Guys, I'm looking for a cheaper more efficient way to send things (parcels) to Europe.

I've used the post office in the past and have no complaints except for the price and how long it takes to get there.
I've asked a few of the Chinese delivery companies before but they didn't seem to do much outside of China/Korea/USA. Things may have changed as it was a few years ago I asked, but if you know of any companies that can deliver, let me know.

Greatly appreciated.

China post is probably your best option. You can either go (relatively) cheap, take ages and be untraceable, or spend a little more, take ~2 weeks and be traceable (surface to air, EMS). If you go with surface to air or EMS, then I believe it's still cheaper than other options (Fedex, DHL, UPS, etc).

Also, surface parcels will take even longer in Europe as they tend to get held up longer each time they hit a new border, which is way more frequent than North America, for example.

Good point about the borders. Never thought of that.

Post office is cheap, I've lost one package of about 30 in 15 years.

On incoming mail: Yunnan U post office has lost numerous things mailed to me.

If your one of those that keeps "losing things mailed to you" or gets opened and resealed packages, you're on China's watchlist.

Using the correct address will improve delivery in China. Face it, the average Chinese postal worker will make about as much sense of an address in English as an US, Canadian or Brit postal worker will be able to read an address in Hanzi.

I had very very good success with this format:

Jiang Dong Si Ji Gong Yu, Apt 1708
Beijing Lu, Panlong District, 650224
Kunming, Yunnan, P.R. China
————————————————

650224
中国云南省昆明市盘龙区北京路江东四季公寓1708 室
电话：1866XXXXX4

Used it for years and never lost a package (I don't live there anymore :-) )

I did a Word doc and emailed to my sons, they used it to make labels to affix to the package.

i have had stuff get hung up in customs for a month, and this was courier express worldwide 48