Feb 14, 2020|
A Second Wedding Anniversary to Remember
By Tracy Yang
Zhang Jiapeng, is a 25-year-old courier who works for JD Logistics in Pucheng, Weinan in China’s Shaanxi province. His wife is an intensive care nurse at Pucheng Hospital who signed up to treat coronavirus patients after the outbreak. Their wedding anniversary is on Feb. 13th, just one day before Valentine’s Day.
“Originally we planned to go to Xi’an to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.” said Zhang Jiapeng. Now they can only gaze at each other. They haven’t seen each other since Jan. 23rd, when his wife started to work in the isolated area of the hospital. Even on her days off, she stayed nearby the hospital in order to protect her family.
These days Zhang Jiapeng has also been working on the frontlines of the fight against the epidemic. After the outbreak, local consumers’ demand for prevention supplies, such as masks and disinfectant surged. Since the stores in Pucheng are all closed, local consumers have turned to online shopping for their daily needs, and Zhang Jiapeng needs to deliver a large number of orders each day. Zhang Jiapeng explains that, in addition to protective equipment, most of the orders during this period are diapers, milk powder, instant noodles, grain, cooking oil and other necessities.
This Valentine’s Day, instead of taking their trip to Xi’an, Zhang Jiapeng stood outside of the hospital with a poster which read “Happy Second Wedding Anniversary. Hope to see you at home soon.” Since he cannot enter the isolated area of the hospital, he can only stand about 30 meters away, and hold up the board for his wife, hoping that she can make out what it says.
Zhang Jiapeng excitedly posted a message on his WeChat moments following his trip to the hospital. It reads, “We are all the bravest people in front of the coronavirus. I finally get to see you. Even though it was just a distant glance. I believe that the coronavirus will eventually be defeated. I hope you come back. Love you. Happy second wedding anniversary.”
The outbreak of coronavirus is impacting Valentine’s Day across China. Many people in love cannot celebrate the festival together. Instead, they can only express their love through messages and gifts.
Considering a lot of people who celebrate Valentine’s Day cannot meet each other, the number of orders where the address of the sender and recipient are different, increased by 125%, among which the gift category increased by 146.7% and cosmetics and skin care products increased by 88%.
According to JD’s big data, the sales of candies and chocolate have increased by approximately 150% YOY. Flowers continue to be the first choice, among which sales of bouquets of stuffed animals or other toys, dried flowers and preserved fresh flowers have grown rapidly.
(tracy.yang@jd.com)