We enjoy services provided by delivery persons almost every day, but we know little about their life. Recently, People’s Daily interviewed several of them across the country, inviting the workers to share their stories.

(2) Liu Houxiang (People's Daily/Yao Xueqing)(3) Xu Longqing (People's Daily/Dai Linfeng)(4) Zhao Bin （File photo）

Zhao Bin, a 29-year-old from central China’s Henan province, is currently working in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province. He likes his job because it allows him a high level of freedom, so that he could flexibly shift between being a deliveryman and a photography enthusiast.

In January, Wuhan was hit by the outbreak of COVID-19. At that time Zhao became stressed, as there were less than 30 delivery persons on duty in the district where Zhao works, compared with more than 300 normally.

Other than delivering food, he also bought foodstuffs and medicine for customers, once even helping to take an elderly patient to the hospital.

During that time, Zhao’s delivery bag was always filled with goods; even his electric car carried a lot of bags. Zhao said he once drove 10 kilometers to deliver 60 steamed buns to a customer, and went to eight drug stores to find medicines badly needed by a patient suffering from chronic disease.

There are more than three million registered delivery persons on Meituan and Eleme, two of China’s biggest delivery platforms. Among them, about 7 percent are female.

Wang Jing from Yinchuan, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, became a deliverywoman three years ago. As a single mother, she wants to offer the best she can to her daughter.

Wang Jing （People's Daily/Yu Limin)

“This is not an easy job, but it gives me a sense of security,” said Wang Jing. As a service provider, she sometimes feels touched by the customers when they remind her to keep safe during delivery and wait patiently for her arrival.

Xu Longqing, is a 31-year-old handicapped deliveryman in Nanchang, capital of east China’s Jiangxi province. According to a customer, Xu could always send a cup of hot bubble tea to her hands more quickly than other deliverymen, and her colleagues all think him reliable.

“My son has become outgoing after being a deliveryman and realized his personal value,” said Xu’s mother.

Liu Houxiang, a 42-year-old deliveryman on Eleme, had made 6,465 trips in the late nights over a period of seven months in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu province. The figure was a record on the platform.

“I’ve been doing this job for five years, and I always receive orders placed by customers who live not far away from each other, which improves my delivery efficiency,” Liu disclosed.

In February, China officially gave people who deliver food or other goods ordered online the name online-order deliveryman, a recognition of their fundamental role in daily life today.