Over 2.8 bln parcels handled in China during Qingming holiday

More than 2.8 billion parcels were handled across China during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday that ended Sunday, the State Post Bureau said on Monday.

Approximately 1.399 billion parcels were collected during the holiday, marking a year-on-year increase of about 17 percent, according to the bureau.

It noted that about 1.429 billion parcels were delivered, representing an increase of about 15 percent year on year.

Recently, spring tea in Hangzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province has entered its peak season for picking.

To facilitate the delivery of spring tea, several courier companies have provided customized services, which not only include collecting parcels from tea farmers, but also help them pack parcels.

"Every time these deliverymen come to our house, they help us pack the parcels and send them out very quickly. We really trust the post office. They come to collect parcels at my door every day," said Wang Peijuan, a tea farmer.

During the Qingming Festival holiday, delivery firms added additional road transportation lines and increased air transport capacity. Meanwhile, they also set up more portable delivery lockers and self-service courier stations to be more time-efficient.

"China's consumer market continues to heat up and consumption potential is being released at an accelerated pace. Via reducing circulation costs, the express delivery sector has promoted consumption upgrades and optimized its own industrial structure, contributing to regional coordination and economic resilience enhancement," said Liu Jiang, director of the Strategic Planning Research Department with State Post Bureau's Development Research Center.

Over 2.8 bln parcels handled in China during Qingming holiday

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight