Three drones carrying six boxes of passion fruit arrived in Meizhou Island on Oct 31 after flying across the sea from the Shanting town in Putian, Fujian province.

It is the first time that China has used drones to deliver packages over water and it took nine minutes to make the five-kilometer crossing.

The package was ordered by Zhou Lixia, a villager on Mezhou island, on Alibaba's rural shopping platform Rural Taobao, several days ago.

The drones, prepared for the Single’s Day shopping festival by local rural Taobao and Cainiao Network runners, greatly shortened the transportation time and is expected to ease the problem of poor transportation connecting Meizhou island with the outside that bothers nearly 40,000 residents with massive online shopping requirements.

Three drones carrying six boxes of passion fruit arrive in Meizhou Island on Oct 31 after flying across the sea from Shanting town in Putian, Fujian province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]