Chongqing: Chongqing resident Fan Xiaojin still remembers the delicate flavor when she tasted jizong, a mushroom from Yunnan province, for the first time more than 15 years ago.
“My college friend from Yunnan brought it from her home and shared it with us. It was preserved in oil and salt in a glass bottle. Although it just looked like pickled vegetables, one bite sent me to heaven,” the 38-year-old said, adding that for years she could not forget the taste.
“There was no place to buy it in Chongqing back then, so I always asked my friend to bring a jar for me when she visited home, and treasured every bite of it until it was eaten up,” Fan recalled.
Jizong is an edible mushroom grown in Yunnan that spoils easily and is hard to preserve.
“It is still not a popular food that I can buy at any brick-and-mortar grocery store in Chongqing, but now I can easily buy it online and receive it in less than a week,” she said.
It is one example of how e-commerce and parcel delivery are boosting consumption and promoting economic development in China. Data from the State Post Bureau of China showed that from January to July, 60.8 billion parcels were handled in China, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent.
The business revenue of the sector totaled 588 billion yuan ($85.7 billion), up 3.7 percent year-on-year.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
