Couriers help drive Spring Festival sales

As Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, approaches, the roads, rail lines and conveyor belts of China's delivery network are filling with an annual tide of packages — boxes of snacks, flowers, cakes and gifts moving across thousands of kilometers, from megacities to villages, from coastal workplaces to inland homes.This year, the Spring Festival holiday falls on Feb 17, ushering in a weeklong public holiday from Feb 15 to 23 — a period marked by family reunions, travel and a surge in consumption. For many families, courier services have simplified holiday preparations.Shao Fang, who works in Hainan province and is originally from Zhumadian in Central China's Henan province, recently sent several boxes of nuts, snacks and cakes back home. On previous occasions, Shao would return to her hometown early to prepare for the holiday. But this year, she ordered everything online."There's no need to go back early to prepare anymore," she said. "I just sent everything ahead, and ...