收快递

My phone buzzed, and I picked it up to look, and on the screen it said: your parcel has arrived. Just that one sentence can make my whole day.

I am Xiao Yue, and I run a tiny dessert shop in Hangzhou. Today I am not making cakes. I am going to pick up my parcels, and while I do, I will tell you about what online shopping is like in China.

This time I bought three things in total: a summer dress, a little bed for my cat, and a baking tin for making cakes. Three parcels, and they all arrived today.

When you shop online in China, the best part is how fast it is. It usually arrives in two or three days, and sometimes I order it tonight and it shows up the next afternoon.

But parcels usually are not delivered right to your door. Instead they go into the parcel lockers downstairs, or to the parcel station at the gate of the compound.

Here is a little piece of knowledge for you. The word kuaidi means the delivery itself, and it can also mean the person who delivers it. For the thing itself we usually say baoguo, a parcel, or we just call it a box.

So I changed my shoes, grabbed my phone and went downstairs. The text message has a string of numbers we call the pickup code, and only with that code can you get your parcel out.

There was only one small parcel in the locker downstairs. The other two boxes were too big to fit, so they went to the parcel station at the gate.

Inside the station there are lots of very tall shelves, layer after layer, all full of parcels. Every shelf has a number written on it, and you look for yours using the number in the message.

I showed my phone to the young guy working there, and he asked me: what are the last four digits of your phone number? Once I said them, he found my boxes for me very quickly.

Three parcels: one big one and two small ones. I held the big box with both arms, stacked the two small ones on top of it, and pressed down on them with my chin, so I could only walk one slow step at a time.

Going up the stairs, I kept worrying the boxes would fall. I finally got through the door, put them all down on the living room floor, and sat down to rest for a moment.

Next comes my favourite part: opening the parcels. But I looked for ages and could not find the scissors. In the end I used my key to cut open the tape on the box.

The moment the box opened, my cat Xiao Hua came running over. She did not look at what was inside at all. She only wanted to sit in the empty box.

The first parcel was that little bed I bought for her, soft and warm. I put the bed on the floor, Xiao Hua took one look at it, turned around and sat back down in the box.

I spend money buying her a bed, and she likes the free box better. Anyone with a cat probably knows this feeling.

So I just put the bed next to the box and waited until she felt like getting in herself. That is what having a cat is like. You cannot make her listen to you. You can only wait for her to get used to it.

The second parcel was the dress. I took it out and held it up against myself, and my heart sank right away. The colour was not quite like the photo, and it was a size bigger than I expected.

Luckily, when you shop online in China, you can usually return things within seven days for any reason. Whether you just do not like it or you got the wrong size, you can send it back.

I tapped a few times on my phone and wrote four words: the size does not fit. The next day a courier came to my door and took the dress away. Through the whole thing, I never took a step outside.

The third parcel was the smallest. It was the baking tin I need for making cakes. I washed it clean and put it in the kitchen cupboard, and tomorrow I can start using it.

After I finished unboxing, I looked around the living room. The floor was covered in cardboard boxes, plastic bags and paper. Buying it takes one minute, but cleaning up takes half an hour.

I picked up the paper piece by piece, and just as I reached for the biggest box, I looked down and found Xiao Hua already fast asleep inside it.

She was sleeping so soundly, her little belly going up and down, that I really did not want to wake her up. All right then, I guess this box gets to stay.

Honestly, shopping online these days really is so convenient. Whatever you want, a few taps on your phone, and in a couple of days it is downstairs, without you ever leaving home.

But I have also noticed that being too convenient is not always a good thing. Buying it feels great, opening it feels even better, but the things in my home just keep piling up, little by little.

Finally, let me teach you the three most useful sentences. Number one: I am here to pick up a parcel, this is my pickup code. Number two: please leave it at my door, thank you. Number three: I would like to return this, the size does not fit.

All right, I need to go and clear up the rest of the boxes on the floor. Thank you for coming along today to pick up and open my parcels, and I will see you next time.