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the quality of the "vegetable basket" of herdsmen in western sichuan has increased, and "combining orders" has become a new fashion for online shopping on the plateau

what are the herdsmen fighting for on the plateau at an altitude of 3,500 meters?

the “internet supermarket” of tibetans in the plateau

at 6 o'clock in the morning, 34-year-old herder nimei duoji came to the pasture to milk the yaks before sunrise. he wanted to catch up with the county milk powder factory's unified milk collection time every day. august is the rainy season, which is the busiest time of the year for herders on the western sichuan plateau. the temperature drops with the rain at any time. before going out to herd cattle in the afternoon, he specially changed into a warm and comfortable coat.

the land under his feet, qiongxi town, hongyuan county, aba prefecture, has an average altitude of more than 3,500 meters, with short spring and autumn, long winter and no summer. this black sports jacket has become an indispensable part of his daily work. "i have worn it for three years. when i bought it on pinduoduo, i thought it was good-looking and affordable. i didn't expect it to be so durable."

in the past, before express delivery entered this town, shopping was really a hassle. if nimeiduoji wanted to buy something, he had to set a date with his family to go to the county town in advance. "the roads were not so well built at that time, and there were no cars." even if his home was only four or five kilometers away from the county town, it was inconvenient for him to go there by horse or motorcycle, not to mention those herders who lived 20 or 30 kilometers away.

since 2022, ni meiduoji and his family have learned to use pinduoduo. after placing an order, the goods can be delivered to their home in two or three days at the fastest, or four or five days at the slowest. while marveling at the speed of online shopping, it also opened a new door to shopping.

▲ nimei duoji, a herder from hongyuan county, aba prefecture, likes to shop online and shoot short videos during his time away from herding. photo by zhang jian

pinduoduo not only meets the herders' needs for food, clothing, housing and transportation, but also provides them with poetry and distant places beyond the grassland. debuzhen's two 9-year-old sisters love to read story books and picture books. it is difficult for the small county library to have suitable books, so the two little girls like to "browse" bookstores on pinduoduo. they can always choose their favorite extracurricular books on pinduoduo, and they read them non-stop once they get the books.

to date, pinduoduo has been continuously improving its service level and consumer experience with its rich product range and ultimate quality-price ratio, continuously optimizing the quality and efficiency of the upstream supply chain, further meeting the diverse consumption needs of the vast majority of users, and allowing people from different regions, ages and lifestyles to have a common way to improve the quality of their daily lives.

express station at 3,500 meters above sea level

"the road to shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky", especially hongyuan, which is the highest county in aba prefecture, with an average altitude of more than 3,500 meters. it is surrounded by mountains and the baihe river meanders through them. it got its name from the long march of the red army, and the word hongyuan means "the prairie where the red army walked through".

qiongxi town, where ni meiduoji lives, is located in the central part of hongyuan county. the town has a population of less than 20,000. his home, four or five kilometers away from the county seat, is already the closest residence to the county seat in the town.

for nimeiduoji, for a long time in the past, the county town represented their largest living radius. without the wide and flat roads of today, and with only a horse and a motorcycle at home, most of the time, they would choose to walk to the county town together, which took at least an hour.

"going to the county town generally requires the whole family to prepare a shopping list. the frequency of our trip to the county town is also uncertain. it may be once a week or once every 10 days. those who live farther away may only go once every half a month or a month." said ni meiduoji.

▲the mountains are rolling and the grasslands are vast. herders in hongyuan county have been grazing here for generations. photo by zhang jian

but in fact, the county town is far from prosperous. the market is full of butcher shops selling beef and mutton, spice shops and fruit stalls. the streets are mostly small shops selling daily necessities and wholesale clothing. some goods can only be squeezed out of the store for display. even the newly built small modern shopping malls only have a handful of chain brand stores.

every time nimeiduoji and his family go to the county town, they buy most daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, food and daily utensils. "but the snacks that children love, such as spicy strips, are not available. before, a neighbor wanted to buy a bar of soap, but i helped him look for it in the county town but couldn't find it."

"fortunately, the internet is gradually connected, and herders have tried online shopping." ni meiduoji tried pinduoduo for the first time and bought the coat he was wearing. he placed the order with the mentality of giving it a try, but he didn't expect that the courier would call him to ask which pasture his home was in just two or three days. pu ersong, the postal manager of hongyuan county post office, said that hongyuan has 10 towns and 31 natural villages. the number of express parcels has increased from 100 to 200 per day to 1,000-1,500 per day. more and more herders are participating in online shopping.

27-year-old debuzhen made his first online purchase in middle school, when he got his first smartphone. seeing the novel stationery on his classmates' desks, he also registered an account on an online shopping platform for the first time. he was eagerly waiting for a pencil case with cartoon characters printed on it, which he has kept until now.

with the popularity of online shopping in hongyuan, the increasing number of orders has made it difficult for the old sorting center to cope. a new postal express center was built last year. the three-story bright yellow building is currently the largest sorting center in the entire hongyuan county.

"there are seven or eight employees in the entire express delivery station, and the number of express delivery orders has been increasing in recent years," pu ersong introduced. "buying things online is affordable, and you can buy things that you can't buy in physical stores. my wife likes online shopping, especially buying kitchen utensils on pinduoduo. every time she brings a bunch of small express boxes home."

in recent years, pinduoduo has continued to adhere to its consumer orientation, continuously increased its support for high-quality merchants and brands, and continuously upgraded logistics, after-sales and other service experiences, so that more plateau consumers like parksong can also experience the joy of online shopping.

▲online shopping is popular on the grassland, and postal couriers deliver packages to your door. photo by zhang jian

yak and vegetables

every morning after 9 o'clock, nimei duoji would put the buckets of fresh milk on his van and drive it to the county town. july and august are what herders call the "yak season". during this period, yaks produce the most milk, and nimei duoji can receive 50 to 60 kilograms of yak milk a day. this milk is sold to milk powder factories in the county town at a price of 3.5 yuan per kilogram, and then part of it is processed into products such as ghee and cheese. after the summer is over, some young and middle-aged people in the town will go out to do odd jobs after settling the yaks.

hongyuan county is the only high-altitude pure pastoral county in aba prefecture. it is rich in water and grass and has the grassland closest to sichuan and chongqing. on the tens of millions of acres of grassland, there live tibetan herdsmen who have lived here for generations and the maiwa yaks that have always been with them. in august, the grassland is green, the sky is blue, the clouds are continuous, the mountains are continuous, the yaks graze quietly, and occasionally the barking of dogs attracts the attention of the herd. every herdsman knows all his own cattle.

likewise, yaks are indispensable on the herders’ dining tables. in hongyuan, almost every household keeps a pot of yak milk tea hot at all times, so you can have a cup as soon as you enter the house; hand-held mutton, yak soup pot and other beef and mutton dishes are all specialties that can be found everywhere.

▲daily grazing on the grassland. photo by zhang jian

"there's plenty of beef and mutton, but it's hard to buy the fruit my sister likes." debuzhen feels that the variety of fruit available in the county supermarket is limited. indeed, even the largest supermarket in the county has been rated by tourists on review websites: "compared to ma'erkang, the variety is not as complete, but it's understandable. the climate in hongyuan is not suitable for long-term storage of fresh vegetables."

the emergence of online shopping platforms has solved this problem.

"you can buy a lot of fruits on pinduoduo that you can't buy in the county market. the delivery is fast, and it's cheaper and better quality than in the market or supermarket. now i only buy fruits offline if i'm in a hurry to eat them." deb often buys apples, oranges and other easy-to-store fruits on pinduoduo, as well as jasmine grapes that her sister likes. fruit shops in hongyuan sell one kilogram for 20 yuan, and you can get 2 kilograms on pinduoduo at this price.

the speed and quality of online shopping are due to the platform's continuous investment in the high-quality development of agricultural products. in terms of selling good agricultural products, pinduoduo goes deep into the origins of various places, uses cutting-edge technology to help merchants build digital supply, and upgrades agricultural products from "production and marketing docking" to "production and consumption docking" through "agricultural land cloud pin", continuously helping agricultural products to go to all corners of the country and create a win-win situation for all parties.

▲when you open pinduoduo, the homepage recommends snacks, toys, fruits, etc. for children. photo by zhang jian |

the world beyond the plateau

the children of the plateau who grew up in the internet age are inherently different from their parents - they have more possibilities and can look out and walk towards the world beyond the plateau.

debuzhen's sister dima zerang and nimeiduoji's youngest daughter purwacuo are a pair of sisters from the grassland. both girls are 9 years old, which is the age of innocence.

during the school holidays, the two of them chased, danced, and laughed freely on the grassland. when they were tired, they sat on the swing made of flowered cloth in the yard, or sat on the steps at the door and counted the yaks as big as black dots in the distance.

purvacuo likes dancing very much. she would show her new dance moves to her sister and often participate in dance performances in her elementary school. purvacuo's mother cherishes every performance of her daughter and hopes to buy beautiful performance clothes to make her happy. pinduoduo has also become her common choice for her daughter to realize her dream.

for 57 yuan, purwacuo's mother bought a black and red tibetan girl's dress for her. "she chose it herself and was very happy to wear it for the performance. the quality of the dress is very good." purwacuo's mother said.

in addition to dancing, the sisters also share a common hobby of reading. "we read together every morning during the summer vacation. today, she stayed in bed, and i ran to wake her up. she almost woke up and fell asleep again!" yu ma zerang brought a few extracurricular books to share with her sister. she is keen on fairy tales about small animals, forests and grasslands.

▲two sisters who love reading have bought a lot of reading materials that are not available in the county town through online shopping. photo by zhang jian

my brother deb is the biggest provider of these extracurricular books, but he was once discouraged by the only library in the county that sells books. "the price tags on the back of the books are very expensive, there are no discounts, and there are not many books for my sister of her age."

in recent years, the price of paper books has been rising. public data shows that the average price of a new book in my country was 36.75 yuan in 2005, which rose to 60.26 yuan in 2015. in 2021, the average price of a new book has risen to 70 yuan.

but pinduoduo has given debuzhen countless good choices. after the platform’s 10 billion yuan subsidy, the books are plentiful and affordable. “i can buy 30 or 40 books in the store for less than 10 yuan on pinduoduo.”

moreover, since launching the first quarter of "duoduo reading month" in april 2021, pinduoduo has continued to cooperate with authoritative domestic publishing houses, book publishing companies, etc. to establish a 100 million yuan reading fund to subsidize high-quality and classic books and provide consumers with affordable and authentic books.

▲9-year-old yuma zerang and purwacuo put on national costumes to dance and take photos. photo by zhang jian

these books brought wonderful and interesting stories to the two little girls on the prairie, building and protecting their small spiritual world.

wei ma zerang’s favorite book is called "love bread", which tells the story of a little squirrel and a little bear helping mr. badger make and sell bread. it is intended to illustrate that the giving of love is a relay, just like the daily life dreams that are illuminated by pinduoduo, sellers and consumers working together.

at 4 p.m., a sudden dark cloud covered the grassland. dima zerang and purwacuo helped their family drive the yaks back to the cattle pen, and then they opened their books and did their homework seriously. dima zerang, 9, has been to chengdu. she can recite several place names in chengdu fluently. when asked where she wants to go to college in the future, she said without hesitation that she wants to go to beijing, "i want to go to a bigger city farther away."