Beijing delivery rider maps routes to success

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Gao Feng, a food delivery rider working in Beijing's Wangjing area, has earned a reputation as a "living map" of the city due to a 99.8 percent on-time delivery rate over the past eight years.

Born in 1990, Gao joined Meituan as a delivery rider after being discharged from the military in 2018. Over the years, he has developed a set of personal protocols that define his service. When delivering an order, Gao steps back about 40 centimeters from the door and waits quietly. This deliberate distance ensures that customers do not feel crowded when opening the door. He also makes it a point to knock gently, careful not to disturb the elderly or young children inside. Finally, he always presents the items with both hands, allowing the customer to receive them safely and steadily.

"Most delivery riders are men, so customers might get startled seeing a large figure when they open the door. Keep about half an arm's length away, then hand over the food with both hands once the door opens," Gao said.

Gao credits his work ethic to the military. In 2009, the 18-year-old joined his comrades in battling a forest fire in the Lesser Hinggan Mountains for 12 days and nights.

"It was brutal — everything on us was black except our teeth and eyes. The military is a crucible that truly forges one's will. After that experience, I never felt there was any hardship I couldn't overcome," Gao recalled.

When Gao first started delivering in Beijing, stepping into the hustle and bustle of the Wangjing area, he was instantly overwhelmed.

For those narrow alleys and side streets that didn't show up on navigation apps, Gao said he explored them one by one on his days off. At night, he would replay the routes in his head like a movie. Over time, he knew every detail of Wangjing by heart — down to how long each traffic light took.

With 800 to 900 orders a month, a 99.8 percent on-time rate and a 100 percent satisfaction rate, Gao became the real deal as a city living map. He even shared his hand-drawn route guides with new riders to help them avoid detours.

"I've trained quite a few apprentices and shared my hand-drawn route notebooks with them — they all find this method works really well," Gao said. "From a veteran rider's perspective, navigation apps aren't as good as planning routes yourself. Especially when it comes to route optimization, many of those app routes were actually refined over time by us delivery riders."

As the Party branch secretary of the rider team at Meituan and a deputy to the Beijing People's Congress, Gao regularly gathers his fellow riders to discuss the daily struggles of the job. Whether it's difficult building access, hard-to-find apartment blocks or the heavy burden of high rents, he listens carefully and documents every complaint. He brought the issue of unaffordable housing for riders to Beijing's 2023 "two sessions". Today, nine districts in Beijing have launched pilot projects for rider-specific guaranteed housing. In the Jinzhan area of Chaoyang district alone, the "colorful home" government-subsidized rental housing has accommodated 1,551 people, 92 percent of whom are food delivery riders and couriers.

"Although being a delivery rider may seem like an ordinary job," Gao said, "if you do it well, it can truly shine. It becomes a beautiful memory of the hard work I put in while in Beijing and the achievements I made. Since I've been in this city, I want to leave my mark. Whether it's your story of growth or your experience of struggle, you can leave it all here in this city."