China shows world how to deliver parcels

At the sector's annual conference in Beijing last month, Zhao Chongjiu, head of the State Post Bureau, said: "Last year, the parcel delivery sector improved its ability to ensure smooth circulation, boosted its efficiency and capability to handle parcels and enhanced the development of intelligent delivery."

China's first express mail was delivered by China's express mail service in 1980. In 1993, STO Express, the first private parcel delivery company in China, was founded in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. In the same year, SF Express, another major parcel delivery company, was established in Shunde, Guangdong province.

Over the years, such services have been enhanced, becoming faster, safer, more convenient and extending to most parts of China.

An SF Express automatic sorting center that opened in Beijing last year can handle up to 1.5 million parcels a day. As parcels of different sizes and destinations move along belts in the center, they are scanned and automatically placed in the appropriate bags, significantly improving efficiency.

E-commerce companies also store products in warehouses across the country to expedite delivery times.

In October, a customer from Qingdao, Shandong province, ordered a down jacket online. To her surprise, she received it just six hours later, in China's 100 billionth parcel delivery of the year. The jacket was produced in Changshu, Jiangsu province, and had been pre-placed at a warehouse in Qingdao.

Ahead of this month's Spring Festival, many Chinese people have opted to purchase and send their holiday gifts home using the parcel delivery system.

In the past, people would bundle luggage filled with gifts onto trains, planes, cars and ships as they journeyed home for the holiday.

One Shanghai resident who will be spending the holiday in South China's Hainan province has sent two packages to her holiday house, containing her son's homework and her yoga mat.

"I even send clothes and gifts home while on business trips," she said.

China now has about 5 million couriers, many of whom hail from rural areas.

Song Yufeng began working as a courier in Jiayuguan, Gansu province in 2014. The flexibility of the job enabled her to care for her paralyzed husband, her father-in-law who has senile dementia, and her son, a student.

"I did not have a strong background. Back then, it was the only job with good pay that could support my family," she said.