Since villager Chen Bingquan started his parcel delivery and post service in his shop, the residents of Qijia village in Xinghua – a county-level city administered by Taizhou in East China's Jiangsu province – have enjoyed much more convenient services.
It's all part of the city's initiative to beef up its services and extend its delivery network to those living in more remote rural areas.
As a result of becoming a business partner with the Xinghua branch of China Post and offering his new service in the village, Chen can earn some additional money every month.
Like many other cities across the country, the city has built its own delivery service network that covers downtown and its towns – except for the rural areas.
To solve the last-mile deliveries to villages, Xinghua has encouraged business entities and governmental departments to join in and develop a three-tiered logistics system.
As a result, private parcel delivery stations in rural areas are showing up.
Last year, the Xinghua branch of China Post invested 6.1 million yuan ($551,340) to build a national demonstration rural e-commerce logistics project in the form of a new 15,000-square meter logistics center.
It started operating in early June and thanks to the automatic sorting equipment and intelligent management system, the daily parcel-handling volume has doubled.
In addition, a group of major domestic express delivery service providers have jointly launched a transportation company. They've also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the China Post Xinghua Branch to help villagers make deliveries and pickups in their neighborhood.