A small parcel's big world: How Fuwei's "International Logistics Village" in Bao'an broke out globally

 Here, I would like to take you into a special “village.” When we think of a village, we picture rippling rice fields, smoke rising from tiled roofs, and the cluck of chickens. The village I’m talking about has no paddies, no country lanes — yet it scatters the seeds of “Made in China” across the globe. There are no dirt roads here, only shipping containers stamped “U.S. Route,” “South Korea–Japan Route,” “Indonesia Route,” etc., forming trade routes to more than 200 countries. This place is Fuwei — the Bao’an “International Logistics Village” in Shenzhen.

The story of this logistics village begins on a piece of land chosen by the times. The logistics industry here goes back to the 1990s, when the first logistics firms were attracted by the site’s simple pickup and efficient transit advantages. What started as small, workshop-style forwarders grew into a cluster. Many domestic shipments used to pass through Shenzhen on their way to Hong Kong; Fuwei’s proximity to Hong Kong and the Shenzhen Bao’an InternationalAirport, its access to the Fuyong port, and its location at the intersection of National Highway 107 and the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway gave it sea-land-air connectivity that gradually formed a full logistics industry chain. Veteran logistician Tan Lifu told me: “20 years ago, Fuyong’s total daily shipment volume was under 100 tons.”

When the cross-border e-commerce boom arrived in 2014, the traditional international logistics giants were reluctant to respond. Local players seized the opportunity and built their own channels. Huang Xiaobin, president of the Fuyong Logistics Association, recalls: “The big four weren’t meeting market needs — so we did it ourselves.” Local companies began to specialize in airfreight express lanes that could deliver goods to the U.S. in 24 hours and get items signed for within two or three days, often at prices 30–50% lower than the major international carriers. In just a few years, the number of logistics firms in Fuwei surged from around 200 to more than 650; across the Fuyong Subdistrict, there are now over 4,300 logistics enterprises, making it Shenzhen’s largest logistics hub. The joke went viral: “Even the guy selling pork knuckle rice at the village gate is doing international logistics now!” What began as freight forwarding and warehousing evolved into cross-border e-commerce logistics and international line transport, forming a complete logistics ecosystem.

In the logistics village you’ll find a distinctive ecology: more than 4,300 firms both competing and cooperating. Where daily throughput once measured in the low hundreds of tons, it is now measured in tens of thousands. In the words of those who work here, “That pie is so big that no one could eat up.” This geometric growth encouraged a business culture of collaboration over cutthroat rivalry. Fuwei replaced cumbersome procedures with one-stop integration, allowing small businesses to reach the world with just a single computer. “Goods sent from Fuyong can reach any corner of the globe!” That bold claim reflects three decades of industrial confidence.

As order volumes jumped from hundreds of tons to tens of thousands, manual sorting could no longer keep up. Fuwei’s answer was to let technology define the future. For example, United Express, a logistic company in the region, once spent more than 2 million yuan (US$278,400) on sorting equipment produced by Mettler, precision instrument manufacturer in Germany, but found it didn’t fully meet their needs. They turned to Jihezhizao Co. Ltd., a local Bao’an firm whose in-house 3D scanning and weighing equipment achieves accuracy within a millimeter and was custom-tailored to solve the company’s pain points — at roughly one-tenth the price of the German system. Founder He Jian put it bluntly: “We have the capability and the tech — and Chinese companies understand local needs. How could we lose?”

More and more companies like this are emerging, replacing foreign monopolies with domestic innovation. Some deploy digital logistics platforms that make global flows visible and traceable, solving “error-prone, hard-to-trace” problems. Others push green, low-carbon solutions, using AI algorithms to optimize motor power and reduce energy consumption — letting “China-made” shine on the world stage.

After the U.S.–China tariff adjustments in April, I returned to the logistics village. Orders exploded. Tan from Paige Logistics had just returned after six months on the road in the U.S. Facing an initial tariff spike of 145%, he admitted he was worried at first. But what he saw in American supermarkets convinced him: eggs were selling for about 10 yuan each, and roughly 70% of shelf goods were made in China. The costs ultimately fall on consumers — and that urgency plays into Fuwei’s strengths.

In recent years, supporting policies have further strengthened the logistics village. As Dr. Liu Jiandang, senior research adviser at the China Development Institute Shenzhen, notes: “Bao’an proves one thing — an effective market plus a proactive government is the ultimate stronghold for China’s supply chain.”

At its core, the International Logistics Village is about solving global essential needs with Chinese solutions. Fuwei’s story is still being written — not in lofty rhetoric but in the rumble of trucks and the relentless practical work. It’s not a tale about geopolitical maneuvers; it’s about getting parcels into overseas buyers’ hands within three days. When the heavy freight trucks roll across the Pearl River estuary and made-in-China products board planes depart worldwide, you see a village without rice fields that is both a global logistics hub and a resilient path for Chinese manufacturing to go global. Here, every parcel answers a real demand in the global chain, and every truck writes a new chapter in “goods connected, world linked.”