Rural county known as birthplace of China's private express delivery industry continues to thrive

China's online shopping sector has drastically changed consumer habits and helped reshape lives, but the origin story of this now booming industry can be traced back to one rural county, where hard-working couriers continue to meet the needs of local people while deploying modern technology to help share the burden.

Tonglu County in Hangzhou of the eastern Zhejiang Province is regarded as the birthplace of China's first private courier service over 30 years ago, where a group of couriers paved the way for the prosperity of the nation's thriving e-commerce industry.

Among those dedicated workers who are leading the charge is Liu Shuli, who has been in the job for eight years. He has witnessed the huge growth of the sector in that time, and says he now handles over 500 parcels a day.

"Over the years, our earnings have grown substantially with targeted government support for couriers. My kids access quality education, while our work - connecting lives through every delivered parcel - brings lasting purpose," he said.

Rising at dawn each day, Liu is kept busy delivering packages to all manner of places, from bustling town centers to secluded mountain villages. Now, he has a handy new helper who is joining his mission and helping share the workload - a special delivery drone.

These modified drones have helped resolve the challenge of sending parcels to hard-to-access mountainous areas, enabling these once time-consuming deliveries to be made in just a few minutes.

Song Wenyong, operations manager of the Common Prosperity Project of Yuantong Express, a leading delivery enterprise, said that drones developed by the company cover two remote villages in the county and provide one daily flight to deliver meals and parcels to elderly residents.

Soon, this service will expand to more villages, while the company also plans to establish fully automated logistics solutions combining drones and autonomous delivery vehicles to serve rural communities.

"By tackling the last-mile hurdle with drones, Yuantong Express has redefined rural logistics. Families outside of elderly citizens can buy more things for them with no worries for the delivery. Our communities once isolated now buzz with more parcels recently," said Song Yongzhong, director of the Supervision Committee for the Hengcun Township.

Tonglu County now has around 12,000 local couriers, and it was in the county's Zhongshan Township where the story all began back in 1993. Back then, a group of humble farmers from the mountains gradually started the delivery revolution, and it was from the county that China's so-called "big four" delivery services of Shentong Express, Yuantong Express, Yunda Express, and Zhongtong Express were all founded.

Leveraging a solid industrial ecosystem and utilizing the latest tech advancements, China's express delivery sector has continued to soar in recent years.

By mid-April, the country's parcel delivery volume has already surpassed 50 billion units this year - which means there are around 500 million packages circulating daily across the nation, powering the world's largest e-commerce ecosystem. Among them, the "big four" delivery firms started in Tonglu make up about 70 percent of China's express industry.

"Tonglu County has gradually established the Express Technology Town, centered around core enterprises including Yuantong, Shentong, Zhongtong and Yunda Express. This hub now attracts nearly 400 logistics companies, advancing the development of a smarter, region-wide intelligent logistics network. In 2024, Tonglu's express delivery industry generated revenue of 48.7 billion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of over 15 percent. Logistics-related service industries accounted for 90 percent of the county's total service sector revenue, underscoring the sector's dominance in driving local economic growth," said Hu Xiaohua, deputy director of the Private Express Delivery Development Center.

Rural county known as birthplace of China's private express delivery industry continues to thrive

Black-necked crane, a rare species under China's first-class national protection, has been living in harmony with local residents over the past years in their plateau paradise -- southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, thanks to the ecological conservation efforts made by local authorities and the care provided by the locals.

Every autumn, the village of Jianda in Shigatse City welcomes some distinguished guests -- over 1,000 black-necked cranes dressed in their elegant black-and-white "tuxedos".

Jianda is their exclusive "winter palace", where they are looked after by 75-year-old Tenzin. He has born witness to the village’s time-honored proud tradition of harmony with nature.

In this model of "human-crane cohabitation", the cranes stand guard as the farmers till their fields and they dance while the livestock graze on pasture. And in the golden glow of sunset, the village's chimneys puff out smoke to a chorus of crane calls, in celebration of a timeless pact between humans and birds.

Every year, when the wintering season ends and the cranes prepare to leave Jianda, Tenzin is always reluctant to part with his pets.

"They're leaving for Changtang [Plateau] again. I can't help but feel a bit reluctant to see them go," said Tenzin.

The black-necked crane, dubbed the "panda of birds", is the world's only crane species that breeds and lives on plateau. They mainly inhabit swamps, lakes, and floodplains at an altitude of 2,500 to 5,000 meters. In China, black-necked cranes are mainly distributed across the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and the Yunnan Guizhou-Plateau.

Their food includes plant leaves, rhizomes and algae. The presence of the black-necked cranes is a sufficient indicator of the sound environment of the plateau wetland ecosystem.

Xizang has always prioritized eco-environmental conservation and kept reminding itself that conserving the ecology of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is the greatest contribution to the survival and development of the Chinese nation, said a white paper issued by the Chinese government in March.

The region is committed to maintaining harmony between humanity and nature in modernization. It also strives to continuously improve eco-environmental governance and protect biodiversity on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, according to the white paper.

Xizang has established 47 nature reserves of all kinds, covering 412,200 square kilometers. According to the second survey of terrestrial wild animals, there are 1,072 terrestrial wild vertebrate species and 246 wild animal species under special state protection in Xizang.

Black-necked cranes coexist peacefully with humans in their plateau paradise