Three hours after landing at an airport in Guangzhou, lobsters from Boston in the United States have been sent to a temporary pool in a bonded area and will reach the table of local residents the next day.

After becoming a pilot city in cross-border e-commerce in 2013, Guangzhou's e-commerce imports and exports rose rapidly. In 2017, cross-border e-commerce trade hit 22.7 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), up 55 percent from a year ago.

The surge in cross-border trade volume benefited from improved clearance efficiency. Currently more than 90 percent of imported products in Guangzhou can clear customs clearance in mere seconds.

"We used to have to run at least six times between different departments to declare to customs, now we just do a few clicks of the mouse," said Li Yibin, with an e-commerce company.

While more Chinese consumers go online to purchase goods from overseas, more small and medium-sized enterprises are selling products in the reverse direction thanks to the expansion of courier services.

"Exporting small goods by post is faster and cost-effective," said Lin Manyun with China Postal Express & Logistics Co Ltd.

Last year, Guangzhou customs approved and sent more than 800 types of Chinese products to over 180 overseas markets. Of them about 90 percent were exported by post.