Bus service combines with delivery service to transport products in and out of mountainous village in Fujian

Photo shows a bus driving on the road linking Junying village, near Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province. (People's Daily/He Dongfang)

Buses linking a mountainous village in Xiamen city of southeast China’s Fujian province not only serve passengers, but also carry parcels containing locally grown agricultural products and industrial products that local residents buy online.

At an altitude of 1,000 meters, Junying village is situated in southwest Xiamen. Before the first road was paved in the village, there were no transportation means available. The villagers had to walk 17 kilometers to get down the mountain, with the round-trip taking them a whole day.

The backwards transportation network had long hindered local people’s connections with the outside world. Su Yingban, who was a primary school student back then, had a lot of respect for a devoted postman in his village named Gao Quanhui. Nowadays, Su himself has already been engaged in the express delivery industry for some years.

In 2015, a bus route became available in Su’s village. Su closed down his business in the city and went back home to open an online store selling locally grown agricultural products. The business was good, except for the poor logistics. Each week, the man would drive a fully loaded vehicle to a township 23 kilometers away from his village to have the goods delivered and then take back parcels containing goods that his fellow villagers had bought online.

Having realized that without a sound logistics network it was impossible for the village to achieve further development, Su contacted an express delivery company and told the latter about his plan of establishing a logistics network in his village. After he knew that the necessary facilities were going to cost a total of 150,000 yuan ($23,295), he decided to shelve the idea temporarily. At the end of 2019, a supply and marketing cooperative was established in Su’s village. As the owner of a successful online store, Su was selected as the head of the cooperative.

“How can we connect our village with a logistics network?” Su thought, as he brought the question back onto the table again. After learning about Su’s plan, the head of a supply and marketing cooperative in the township discussed it with the local postal service department and a bus company, finally coming up with a solution whereby the parcels would be carried by buses, with busing services having been available in the village for some time. Su was so excited that he almost started to shed tears upon hearing the good news.

Because other villagers were less familiar with the job responsibilities of a delivery man than he was, Su applied for the job without hesitation. He earns 0.5 yuan for the delivery of each parcel. For him, collecting and delivering parcels is the most important part of his job.

In less than one year after the launch of the express delivery service, Su already felt a deep sense of the great changes that modern logistics had brought to the village. During his live-streaming sessions, when viewers expressed concerns about when the goods might be delivered, Su always told them with pride that their parcels would be delivered within a day after the orders were placed.