China shows world how to deliver parcels

More than 4,000 parcels are generated every second in China, adding up to over 350 million each day, with the average person receiving more than 90 last year.

This thriving parcel delivery industry has not only benefited Chinese consumers, altering their behaviors and lifestyles, but has also created millions of jobs.

An elderly Beijing resident traveled to Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan province last month to escape the harsh winter in the nation's capital.

Planning to stay for about a month, he and his wife took two large suitcases with them.

"We older people always like to bring everything with us when we travel," the 75-year-old said.

But they forgot to pack their swimming gear, including the special swimming goggles he needs due to his myopia. Unable to find — 7.0 nearsighted goggles in town, they turned to an online shop and were surprised when the goggles arrived within a week.

"Xishuangbanna is a remote border area," he said. "Although we are staying in a downtown hotel, I expected it would take at least a week to receive the goggles. Surprisingly, they arrived on the third day after my order.

"My daughter always urges us to travel light and purchase what we need along the way. I might heed her advice next time."

He said that if products can be delivered to border areas in days, delivery to other parts of the country would likely be even faster.

China's parcel delivery sector handled 132 billion consignments last year, up 19.4 percent year-on-year and accounting for over 60 percent of the global total.

As the network has expanded, the number of consignments processed in China each year has surged from over 10 billion in 2014 to over 100 billion since 2021.

Since March, the network has been handling more than 10 billion parcels a month.

According to a report released in November by the Development and Research Center of the State Post Bureau, China's parcel delivery network is now more than 48.7 million kilometers long, with over 230,000 stations capable of serving 700 million clients a day.

The report said the delivery sector's global parcel volume reached about 189.2 billion in 2022 and was expected to reach 200 billion last year.

In 2022, the sector's revenue amounted to about 4.1 trillion yuan ($571 billion) — a year-on-year increase of over 12 percent — with the global per capita delivery volume standing at around 24 parcels.

"After years of rapid development, China is not only a leading and active express delivery market but also a catalyst for global parcel delivery development," Wang Xibin, the center's deputy director, said.