More than 58 billion parcels were sent and received across China in the first seven months of the year as the express delivery sector maintained steady growth, the State Post Bureau said. The number was up about 43% year-on-year. International package shipments also bounced back thanks to effective control measures targeting the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of international parcels, and ones delivered from or received in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, rose 36% year-on-year to 1.25 billion. The expansion of the express delivery system is especially convenient for rural residents. In the first half year of the year, more than 20 billion parcels were handled in rural areas, a year-on-year increase of 30%. All county-level regions and 98% of townships have access to express deliveries.
A consumer in Chunshui, a town in Zhumadian, Henan province, said she changed her shopping from brick-and-mortar stores to online shops since an express delivery outlet opened in a grocery store close to her home. Shopping online offers more fancy choices. It usually takes three to five days to receive a package, she said. In addition to receiving goods they have purchased, rural residents use the network to send agricultural produce to cities near and far. A walnut grower in Kashgar, Xinjiang, used to contact truck drivers to send walnuts to Shanghai after the annual harvest season, usually in September. But now trucks from YT Express, a major express delivery company, collect his walnuts at the door to be delivered all over China. Last year, 10 million parcels of 60 kinds of produce, including tangerines from Yichang, Hubei province, and cherries from Yantai, Shandong province, were shipped via express delivery.
The State Post Bureau launched a three-year campaign last year to further expand the network at the grassroots and Premier Li Keqiang reiterated that China will improve the delivery logistics system in rural areas to aid rural vitalization. The Bureau has set a goal of building a safe, efficient, open and two-way rural delivery network to benefit the rural population by 2025 and all villages will have access to express delivery by then, the China Daily reports.
