Have you ever wondered what happened to that package you sent that went nowhere? Where does undeliverable mail go, anyway? Now, we might finally have an answer: it ends up in China, and is sold on the street like cabbage or ginger root.

Photographs of undelivered packages dumped onto the sidewalk in Bazhou, Hebei on February 25 are circulating widely online. The photos show people crowding around the packages, which were sent from Beijing addresses to international locations but were returned. Some are believed to have been Christmas gifts sent abroad.

This mail wasn’t collected and signed for, and the sender didn’t it want back. What’s not clear is how it ended up in Hebei, where interested buyers paid for the packages and ripped them open to see what they “won”.

Once the photos reached the Beijing Postal Administrative Agency, though, the party appeared to end. The agency says selling undelivered mail is a serious violation of their rules, and is sending someone out to conduct an investigation.