Monitoring data from the State Post Bureau shows that as of September 29, China's express delivery volume in 2026 had exceeded 150 billion pieces, reaching that scale 12 days earlier than in 2025.

The efficient circulation of 15 billion parcels reflects the strong resilience and vibrant vitality of China's economy.

This year is the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan. China's economy has maintained an overall stable development trend, moving toward new and better growth, and the potential contained in the domestic consumer market has continued to be released, providing a solid demand foundation for the continued expansion of the postal and express delivery market.

Focusing on "two promotions" and "three improvements," the postal and express delivery industry has made comprehensive efforts from rural areas to factories and from the domestic market to overseas markets, pushing high-quality development of the industry to new steps.

Picking up parcels during a stroll in the village

To improve rural delivery service capacity, the State Post Bureau has continued to deepen the development of the rural delivery logistics system, deepen the integration of rural passenger, freight, and postal services, pilot postal fallback services, and promote express delivery into villages through multiple methods.

In Yongchang, Gansu, a "micro bus" carries passengers in the front and goods in the back, delivering both passengers and parcels on one trip. Gu Jiancheng serves four roles at once: courier, bus driver, road condition inspector, and convenient purchasing agent. He is responsible for delivery to 12 villages, and his delivery volume has more than doubled compared with two years ago.

With passenger, freight, and postal services entering villages, the small shop in Meijiasi Village has also become a "comprehensive convenient service station" and has been equipped with four sets of smart parcel lockers, so villagers can pick up parcels while taking a stroll.

In Fang County, Hubei, high mountains account for more than 80% of the area, and the farthest township is 169 kilometers from the county seat. In the past, villagers in Changwangchuan Village had to go to the township to pick up parcels, riding electric bikes more than ten kilometers round trip. Since the pilot postal fallback service for "express delivery into villages" began, they can pick up parcels at their doorstep. The time limit for express delivery into villages has been shortened by 16 hours, and the average daily business volume of the joint distribution center has increased by nearly 20%.

The shortcomings in delivery services in remote areas are becoming a "potential board" that promotes rural consumption and drives business growth.

Couriers become logistics stewards for factories

To improve the industry's ability to serve production, the postal and express delivery industry has taken the initiative to embed itself in the operation of the real economy and deepen and expand service scenarios.

In Ningbo, Zhejiang, express delivery companies have taken on the operation of spare parts warehouses and line-side warehouses for chain leader enterprises such as Geely Automobile, connecting with production enterprises' systems and using professional supply chain services so that enterprises can focus on production. After Yagor's smart cloud warehouse introduced intelligent equipment, picking efficiency doubled and the error rate was almost zero. It takes only 20 minutes from order placement to loading for a piece of clothing, with delivery in as fast as 2 hours, and annual outbound volume exceeds 10 million pieces.

In Danyang, Jiangsu, express delivery companies have moved service nodes from the "factory gate" forward to "beside the production line," setting up an independent 7,000-square-meter area in Yuwell Medical's warehousing and logistics center, handling more than 8,000 products per day, accounting for more than half of the total business volume in that area. Relying on a factory-warehouse-distribution supply chain coordination system, the enterprise's inventory cost has been reduced by more than 70%, the full-process time from shipment to pickup has been shortened by more than 4 hours, and the next-day delivery rate exceeds 97%, making it a veritable "second workshop" for the enterprise.

Express delivery is deeply embedded in industrial chains and is accelerating into a "new engine" that promotes the development of the real economy and supports industrial upgrading.

Cross-border delivery gains "acceleration"

To improve international delivery service capacity, the postal and express delivery industry has accelerated the construction of a three-dimensional, interconnected Belt and Road delivery logistics network to better support foreign trade development and high-level opening up.

In Zhengzhou, Henan, the "Zhengzhou-Moscow" international postal direct express test train departed from Zhengzhou, fully loaded with cross-border e-commerce postal parcels such as craft folding fans, cartoon plush toys, and customized handbags. It exits through the Manzhouli port and can arrive in Moscow in about 10 days. Logistics costs are about one-third lower than air freight, providing a "middle option" between air and sea transport for the export of small cross-border e-commerce parcels.

From May to early August, the Oriental TianDi Port, which integrates an air, rail, sea, and road multimodal transport system, completed a total of 89 inbound and outbound flights and more than 2,200 tons of import and export goods.

The postal and express delivery industry is accelerating the creation of new channels that smooth the domestic and international dual circulation and serve high-level opening up.

A relevant official from the State Post Bureau said that this year China's express delivery volume exceeded 150 billion pieces 12 days earlier than last year, a vivid footnote to the strong resilience of China's economy, once again confirming that the postal and express delivery industry is not only an important channel for smoothing the main artery of the economy, but also an important force for safeguarding the microcirculation of people's livelihoods.

As China's consumption-boosting policies continue to take effect and new drivers of the industry grow faster, the postal and express delivery industry will further play its leading role in the logistics sector, help smooth economic circulation, and continue to inject momentum into promoting high-quality economic development.