CHENGDU, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Express delivery now reaches more than 95 percent of China's administrative villages. In some rural areas, however, getting a parcel to the village requires more than just one mode of transport.

　　In Zizhong County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, for example, drones are being used on routes where winding roads make the last leg of the journey slow. This county currently has 131 drone routes serving 131 villages and plans to extend them to all 301 villages by the end of the year.

　　Some 300 km away in Quxian County, drones are also being tested on the return journey, carrying farm produce from villages to township delivery points.

　　This photo taken in June 2026 shows a drone of JD Logistics transporting goods in Zizhong County, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Xinhua)

　　SHORTER WAY IN

　　The route from Guide Town to Tongjiazui Village in Zizhong requires a delivery vehicle to travel 9.9 kilometers, which takes about 19 minutes, while a drone on this route covers 5.7 kilometers in roughly 6.5 minutes.

　　Around 85 percent of Zizhong is hilly, and many villages lie on slopes or in river valleys. Some remote villages previously received parcels only once every two or three days. In places without village service stations, residents sometimes had to travel to town to collect them.

　　Rao Yurong, who grows blood oranges in Yueliangxia Village, recently received a battery-powered sprayer she had bought online. It took the drone around seven minutes to fly from the township station to the village. Notably, Rao previously spent nearly an hour riding an electric bike to town and back to collect a parcel.