In 2025, the release of "Ne Zha 2" reignited China's film and television market, which had been relatively dormant for some time. The movie's phenomenal popularity sparked a surge in related industries.

Nationwide, not only toys, figurines, and stickers inspired by Ne Zha sold well, but even the "lotus root powder" used in the film's plot to reshape Ne Zha's body garnered unexpected attention.

A lotus root powder enterprise in Hubei has been operating at full capacity since the Spring Festival. The lotus root powder produced there is shipped to all corners of the country. To the company's surprise, orders from western regions like Tibet have increased rapidly this year.

The enterprise's representative explained:

"In the past, we rarely handled orders from regions like Tibet due to the prohibitively high freight costs."

However, in September of last year, Pinduoduo announced a reduction in secondary freight costs for transit and consolidated shipping orders in remote areas. For this lotus root powder enterprise, the company only needs to cover the freight from the shipping point to the transit point, while the freight from the transit point to the western region is borne by the platform.

The cost of express delivery to the west has been significantly reduced, not only lessening the burden on merchants but also boosting the shopping enthusiasm of local residents.

According to national postal data, the national express delivery business volume in 2024 reached 175.08 billion pieces, marking a 21.5% year-on-year increase. The growth rate of express delivery in western provinces was generally higher than the average, with Tibet increasing by 23.3%, Ningxia by 32.6%, Guizhou by 39.1%, and Gansu and Inner Mongolia reaching astonishing rates of 41.7% and 44%, respectively.

It is worth noting that Shaanxi had the fastest growth rate in the national express delivery business volume last year, with a year-on-year increase of 50.4%. This is obviously a share of the dividends from the explosion of western express delivery, as Xi'an is one of Pinduoduo's transit points to the west.

Online shopping, once an "atypical" consumption pattern in the west

Express delivery or online shopping has long been a norm for consumers in central and eastern China.

However, due to natural and geographical conditions, such a lifestyle seemed to be separated from western residents by a natural divide for a long time.

If we consider the broad western region based on administrative divisions, the western region accounts for 72% of the country's area but only 27% of the total population.

Using the famous Hu Huanyong Line to divide "east and west" reveals an even more extreme situation. To the west of this line, nearly 60% of the country's land area is inhabited by less than 6% of the country's population.

The vast land with a sparse population and inconvenient transportation is the most intuitive feeling for a mainlander visiting the more "inland" western region. Ten years ago, the author lived in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, for a long time and had a deep impression on this point.

Squeezed by the Loess Plateau and the Tibetan Plateau, Lanzhou and its surrounding areas are mountainous with gullies crisscrossing. The Yellow River flows from southwest to northeast here. Although it has carved out many valley plains over millions of years, their areas are limited. The rugged mountains block external channels, and the main railway and highway lines can only follow the river's contour, winding and tortuous.

Therefore, although Lanzhou is an important city in the west, express delivery is not smooth, and the difficulty of online shopping increases significantly in villages and towns on the outskirts. Almost all goods require an additional shipping fee of 20 to 30 yuan, and the delivery time is typically a week or more.

The only place outside the city that can guarantee normal express delivery speed is the university town, where nearly 100,000 college students form an active online shopping group. Relying on their spending power, they can support several stable express delivery outlets nearby. But as soon as one leaves the university town's radiation range, these express delivery points disappear like snow in spring.

High costs, long delivery times, and few outlets—various obstacles in logistics have hindered the popularization of online shopping. The problem is even more severe in western regions farther from Gansu.

Many students in Lanzhou come from remote areas of Tibet and Qinghai to study. Many of them tried online shopping for the first time when they entered university. After getting familiar with it, they quickly fell in love with this lifestyle of instant gratification. When approaching winter and summer vacations, they even complain: "Going back home means returning to the reclusive life of 'no delivery.'"

E-commerce's westward expansion allows western consumers to share in commercial civilization

Fortunately, the e-commerce disparity caused by geographical barriers is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

In 2022, Pinduoduo pioneered the transit and consolidated shipping free shipping model. In 2024, Pinduoduo announced that it would cover logistics transit fees in remote areas.

The reduction in logistics costs brought about by Pinduoduo quickly led to immediate changes in the vast western region.

Zhayongqing, a Tibetan language teacher in Zaduo County, Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, has had a very tangible experience of this.

Zaduo County covers an area of over 30,000 square kilometers, roughly equivalent to two Beijings, but the total population is just over 70,000. The eastern part of the county is mountainous, while the western part is a plateau grassland with thousands of herdsmen scattered among them. They have long maintained the traditional life of following the water and grass.

Today, grassland life may evoke images of poetry and distant places in the eyes of mainland literary youth, but as an actual lifestyle, it signifies a harsh and isolated existence far from modern civilization.

In the past, express delivery was not available year-round in pastoral areas of Qinghai, and daily shopping was also extremely inconvenient. Zhayongqing recalls that when he was young, his father had to walk more than ten kilometers to the county town if he wanted to buy him toys. But in a border county, the goods in the city are also limited. After growing up to become a teacher, Zhayongqing often lamented that he couldn't even buy a good musical instrument in the county.

Every week, more than a hundred children come to the music school where Zhayongqing works. Most of them come from herdsmen's families, and their parents do not understand music and rarely buy musical instruments for their children.

But as the saying goes, a good craftsman must first sharpen his tools. Musical instruments are the outlet for a musician's soul expression. Zhayongqing, who grew up in a musical family, has been exposed to various musical instruments such as cucurbit flute, bamboo flute, saxophone, and mandolin since childhood. He knows that the cultivation of musical sense cannot be separated from practice. How to move fingers, how to control breathing—these experiences that bring musical instruments to life cannot be directly transmitted from the teacher's mind to the students.

In the mandolin class, Zhayongqing demonstrated techniques to the children and told them, "Your fingertips should be as delicate as touching dewdrops." Such teaching language is naturally as beautiful as poetry, but to specifically play, students must experience it themselves by holding the instrument and practicing constantly to show results.

On Pinduoduo, Zhayongqing found a harmonica priced at 22 yuan, and it was free shipping to the west. He ordered dozens at once, hoping to hold a "piano presentation ceremony" after the Tibetan New Year to give them to his students, so that these Tibetan children could have their first musical instrument of their own.

Thousands of miles away from Zaduo County, by Qinghai Lake, 60-year-old Nanjia also felt the tremendous changes brought about by e-commerce's westward expansion.

As an environmental volunteer at Qinghai Lake, Nanjia has been steadfast for over 30 years. He picks up garbage by the lake, treats saline-alkali land, restores the ecosystem of Xiaobo Lake wetland, monitors and patrols the sand control area, stops illegal fishing of Huangyu fish in Qinghai Lake, monitors and rescues wild protected animals such as Przewalski's gazelle, black-necked cranes, and whooper swans. With social funding, he has also established an ecological museum and continuously appealed to more people to pay attention to the ecology of Qinghai Lake through the internet.

Nanjia's persistence has inspired many, and the team of volunteers is constantly expanding. However, long-term outdoor volunteer work has made his family worried about his health.

Qinghai Lake is located on the plateau with an average annual temperature of only 1.2℃, and the average temperature in the coldest month of January is as low as -12.6℃. The cold climate makes warmth a big issue. Related outdoor equipment is not available for purchase nearby and can only be obtained in the provincial capital Xining. Such a round trip takes two days, and transportation is quite inconvenient.

In fact, Nanjia suffered from leg problems due to a car accident, and the doctor has been advising him to stay away from cold and wind. But Nanjia, who was deeply concerned about Qinghai Lake, still insisted on patrolling and camping in the wilderness. As a result, his condition worsened, and he had to undergo an emergency amputation surgery in 2020.

Nanjia, who now has a prosthesis, did not stop protecting Qinghai Lake, which made his family see and feel his dedication.

Fortunately, it was also at this time that online shopping began to enter Nanjia's community, and Pinduoduo's free shipping service covered Qinghai. Nanjia and other volunteers no longer need to spend time traveling to Xining. They can easily purchase protective gear, as well as garbage bags, garbage tongs, detectors, and other environmental protection products on the platform. Relying on modern tools, the guardians of Qinghai Lake now have greater confidence.

The real change has just begun

The changes in the industry brought about by Pinduoduo are also a form of shopping equity. Western consumers are freed from geographical restrictions and enjoy the dividends of e-commerce development, unleashing their consumption potential and making their connections with the world closer. The lifestyle changes brought about by this extend beyond the scope of commerce.

The harmonica that Teacher Zhayongqing bought online for his students is not expensive, but it plants a seed of dream in the hearts of the children in the pastoral area. The environmental protection products purchased by volunteers like Nanjia are used to protect Qinghai Lake while also highlighting the importance of the environmental protection industry on a larger scale.

In the process of e-commerce's westward expansion, western residents have gained not only affordable and practical goods but also broadened horizons and conceptual leaps. Once, western residents were accustomed to self-sufficiency, but now, they can access goods from all over the country and even the world through e-commerce platforms, gaining more trendy and novel consumption experiences. This change in consumption concept is also subtly driving the upgrading and replacement of the western market.

As Pinduoduo's visibility in the west increases, many people have also begun to use the platform to export local specialties in reverse. Products such as Tibetan matsutake soy sauce, Medog black tea, Huan County mutton from Gansu, and Tianshui Flower Cow apples have all ventured out of the plateau and mountains. Local residents have more channels to increase their income, while also attracting more young people to choose to return home and start businesses.

In the future, e-commerce will continue to reshape the consumption and industrial structure of the west. When geographical barriers between the east and the west are no longer an issue and a nationwide market is established, the circulation of talents, goods, and resources will bring continuous dividends.

Today's westward expansion of e-commerce may only be a beginning, and the real change has just begun.