Booming logistics, e-commerce bolster livelihoods

As a migrant worker in Beijing, Shao Fang had no choice but to leave her 7-year-old son at home with his grandmother in a village in Henan province, despite feeling guilty about doing so.

The 40-year-old mother likes shopping online, and buys her son gifts to make up for not being with him.

"Whenever I miss him, I open Taobao and buy him a toy," said the mother of two sons, adding that things are much more convenient now than a decade ago, when she left her first son at home with his grandmother. Shao's eldest is now 20.

She worked in a factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in the 2000s and brought her older son gifts when she returned home for a visit, usually once a year.

Thanks to the booming parcel delivery business, gifts can now be shipped to her younger son within a week.

The parcels are stored at a retail store next to her home, which is about a 5-minute walk away. Shao thinks it's convenient.

"My younger son is luckier than his brother," she said, adding that online stores also offer many more choices than local ones. "My son can have the same toys as the city kids do," she said.

Shao is one of thousands of Chinese to benefit from the rapid development of the parcel delivery business, which makes lives easier and offers greater choice, especially to residents of less-developed rural areas.

The country's first parcel was delivered in 1980. After four decades of development, China handled 83.3 billion parcels last year, and for seven consecutive years has been the country with the most parcels handled.

"China is the world's fastest growing and most dynamic emerging market for parcel delivery. The number of packages received and delivered has exceeded the total number of parcels handled in the United States, Japan and Europe," Ma Junsheng, head of the State Post Bureau of China, the industry regulator, said at a news briefing.

The development of China's infrastructure has contributed to market growth, he added.

A comprehensive transport network, including civil aviation, railway and road systems is able to deliver parcels to almost everywhere in the country.

Thanks to China's booming e-commerce industry, the parcel delivery business has grown from 1.8 billion parcels handled in 2009, to 63 billion in 2019.

During the pandemic, the delivery industry played a significant role in daily life.

When Wuhan, capital of Hubei province－and the city hardest hit by the virus in China－was under lockdown for 76 days, deliverymen traveled across the empty city with medical supplies and daily necessities to the sick, and helped its 11 million residents live as normally as possible.

The industry again showed its importance during this year's Spring Festival.

To contain the risk of a resurgence, people were encouraged to stay put and avoid travel during the festival, which is considered the most important holiday for family reunions in China.

Instead, people sent gifts to their family and friends. As they could not travel themselves, their gifts traveled for them, spreading their love.

Bureau data shows that China handled 660 million parcels during the 7-day holiday, a growth of 260 percent on last year.

The industry will continue to grow, especially as deliveries reach more people in remote and rural areas.

The bureau, which launched a 3-year campaign to send more parcels to rural areas last year, estimates that China will handle 95.5 billion parcels this year.

According to Hou Yanbo, spokesman for the bureau, 98 percent of towns have set up stations to handle parcels, and last year more than 30 billion parcels were delivered and received in rural areas.

"This brings city-made goods to villages, and takes agricultural produce from rural areas to the cities," he added.

Shao Fang's family plants sweet potatoes at home and usually processes them into sweet potato noodles to sell locally.

"If I can make enough money to sell homegrown agricultural products to cities, I will stay at home with my younger son," she said, adding that this would help make up for not having been able to be more present in her older son's life.

"I love to watch my younger son doing school homework, and to help him shower every day," she said.