Sending holiday care packages popular as travel discouraged

Since local authorities in many places have encouraged people to stay where they work during the Spring Festival holiday in the fight against the pandemic, more and more residents are choosing to send goods for use during the Spring Festival to their family members and friends who live in other places.

The Songmen Aquatic Products Wholesale Market in Wenling, a county-level city in coastal Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province, has witnessed a sharp increase in orders sent outside of the province over the past three weeks, according to market regulators.

"Many people chose to stay in Wenling for the Spring Festival this year, and they purchased seafood products to send to their family members so they can taste Taizhou flavor," said a vendor at the market surnamed Liu, adding that the most popular aquatic products are hairtail, yellow croaker, pomfret and cuttlefish.

In another development, the China Post branch in Jiashan county in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, launched a special campaign to help people who cannot go back to their hometown for Spring Festival this year send such goods and local specialties to their family members, relatives and friends.

A Jiashan local surnamed Shao took advantage of the China Post event to send some gifts to students in the remote poverty-stricken mountainous areas of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, saying that she hopes they would feel the warmth from a southern city in China.

The marketing event will end by Feb 10 and people can follow the official accounts of EMS, the express delivery unit of China Post, on WeChat and Alipay to get coupons for a 15 percent discount as well as other benefits.

Cai Jingwen contributed to the story.