China buys from the world, while remaining at home

Every afternoon, Cao Fuchun goes to a nearby express delivery station to see if any parcels have arrived for him. The retired worker has caught the "overseas" bug.

For Cao, buying goods online from overseas means he can shop in countries he has never been to. Living in Pengzhou county near Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, Cao has bought skimmed milk from Australia, beef from Argentina and a water filter from Germany, among other goods.

At the end of last year, Cao's daughter, an accountant in Beijing, bought US-made fish oil capsules and vitamin tablets for her parents. "I was surprised how inexpensive they were, so I got hooked on buying overseas," he says.