Review: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

Hu's first-person account as a courier

I lived in Beijing just before the appearance of smartphones, WeChat and T-Mall, which resulted in the explosion of Chinese people buying clothes and food online and having them delivered to their homes and offices.

Practically overnight people's lives changed -- there was no need to go to the store or restaurant in person, someone did this for you, saving lots of time and effort.

But for those people providing that service, the delivery workers, it was and still is hard work.

We never knew what that experience was like, until Hu Anyan, a budding writer, published his first-hand accounts during the Covid lockdowns.

He worked a string of several low-paying jobs

His descriptions of what it was like to work for delivery companies as well as a string of other lowly jobs were compiled into a book, called I Deliver Parcels in Beijing in 2023 which became a hit and sold 2 million copies, and then was translated into English by Jack Hargreaves.

Hu is not a particularly ambitious person, but likes to do his job well, whatever it may be. He writes mostly about what it's like to be a delivery driver on a trike, and earning less than 2 yuan per package is hard to fathom, considering he had to pick up the parcels from a central warehouse, go to the addresses, go up elevators or stairs to deliver the packages or contact the people to collect them.

That's a lot of work. 

And if the items in the package are damaged or spoiled, he has to compensate out of his own pocket. These drivers also have the stress of people complaining their packages haven't arrived, as well as worrying about getting into an accident on the road.

Readers can't help but sympathise for Hu, and then there is the additional issue of having to deal with his colleagues and managers, many of whom are not collegial or professional, which he recounts in various incidents.

We first meet Hu working in a logistics depot sorting items, re-packing them, and then putting address labels on them. He thinks he can earn more money by working the night shift, but it's physically demanding and also difficult for the body to adjust. 

Delivering parcels is a tedious task for low wages

He describes not only what it's like on the job, but also what he does after work. When he is off work in the early mornings, his mind is still buzzing from working that it takes a few hours to calm down and sleep; he resorts to wandering grocery stores to tired out his body, even though it's already exhausted.

Later in the book he describes working at a convenience store, a bicycle shop, magazine and comic book publishers, and even trying to start his own business selling knock-off trendy clothes and a snack shop.

Hu also works in different cities, from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, to Foshan, Nanning, Dali, and Xiaguan, and even flies to Hanoi, Vietnam to see if he can be an entrepreneur there.

All these jobs with meagre salaries in different cities shows Hu's attempts to try to keep his living costs low, but then salaries are lower in the smaller municipalities; it's a no-win situation when working in a gig economy. 

He also bounces from job to job every six months or a year, probably because he realises he won't be making much more money, or feels he should be doing something else.

Interestingly he says his parents don't push him to work harder or get better jobs, and he does move back with them for a few years. The jobs have also taken a toll on Hu's mental health, making him lose interest in interacting with people, isolating himself. 

It seems that writing has helped him understand his experiences better and how they have shaped him as a person.

There are millions of people doing these jobs for very little pay in China. Is it any wonder they don't make enough money to buy an apartment, let alone save enough to have any safety net? It's a side of China that is rarely talked about, but exists, according to Hu.