Eastern Chinese province delivers 10 billion parcels in 2018

HANGZHOU -- Eastern China's Zhejiang Province, home to Internet giant Alibaba and several large courier companies, shipped over 10 billion parcels in 2018, the provincial postal administration said.

Cross-border parcel services grew rapidly, with the number of parcels to other countries as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan exceeding over 200 million, up 117 percent, said Wang Deben, deputy head of the administration.

The number of rural parcels exceeded 1.8 billion as courier service outlets reached all the villages and townships across the province. The courier service helped drive the sales of agricultural products to 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion).

"The development of the courier industry has enhanced productivity of brick-and-mortar enterprises. According to incomplete statistics, the courier industry has saved nearly 40 billion yuan in logistics cost for companies in Zhejiang for the whole year," Wang said.