Topic

by Yiming Yan

Ms. Dorthe Lange, Charge D’Affaire with the rank of ambassador of The Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Beijing, knocked on the door of a local Beijinger’s home on January 10th and presented her with a Spring Festival delivery of Danish cookies.

Ms. Dorthe Lange together with the courier who is calling the consignee

Escorted by a JD courier, Ms. Dorthe Lange is the only female diplomat to take part in a special mission to deliver their countries’ products to customers in Beijing who had placed orders during JD’s Chinese New Year (CNY) Grand Promotion. Other diplomats who participated in the mission include 8 ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka, and Mr. Gianpaolo Bruno, Italian Trade Commissioner who represented the Italian ambassador in this program. The group was invited by JD.com to be special delivery envoys, delivering Spring Festival packages—along with CNY blessings—to the doorsteps of Chinese customers who have ordered their countries’ products.

The customer who received the visit is a Danish language instructor who fell in love with Danish food after studying and living in Denmark for a year. She welcomed the unexpected guest and invited the ambassador to sit down for a warm chat and shared Danish cookies the ambassador just delivered.

Danish cookies were among the top 5 products sold in Guangdong, Jiangxi, and other provinces during this year’s CNY Grand Promotion, according to data from JD Research Institute for Consumption and Industrial Development, indicating that Danish elements have been integrated into Chinese Spring Festival culture.

Ms. Dorthe Lange’s badge and trophy

“I’m more than delighted to find out that many Danish products can easily reach Chinese consumers on digital platforms like JD.com,” said Ms. Dorthe Lange.

Danish brands like Lego, B&O, and Ecco have taken off and expanded in the Chinese market, as the volume and categories of imported products have been flourishing on JD.com to meet the local consumers’ increasing demand for quality and diversity of goods.

JD has spent more than RMB 310 billion yuan on imported brand items in the last two years, establishing itself as a “gateway for international brands in China”.

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

by Yiming Yan

During a trip home to China, Ma, a Chinese student studying in Peru, ordered Peruvian specialties from JD.com for his family as part of his Spring Festival shopping. The delivery arrived on January 12 as scheduled, but to Ma’s surprise, one of the couriers was none other than the Peruvian Ambassador to China, Luis Quesada.

“I’m very proud that Peru has a very nice relationship with JD.com,” Luis Quesada said during the visit. “We hope that we can offer more diversities of goods for Chinese people to enjoy.”

Ambassador Luis Quesada (right) and the consumer Ma (left)

To celebrate the Chinese New Year (CNY), JD.com invited ambassadors to take part in a mission to deliver their countries’ products to JD’s customers in Beijing. Nine Ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, Sri  Lanka, and Charge D’Affaire of Denmark, Italian Trade Commissioner in China on behalf of the Italian ambassador in this program, have been named as chief promoting officers of products from their home countries to deliver Spring Festival packages to the doorsteps of Chinese customers who ordered products from those countries on JD.com.

Ma, the recipient, moved to Peru to join his father, a Shougang Group employee working in Peru. Ma is currently studying Spanish translation at his father’s job site and recently returned to China for the Chinese New Year festival. He did not expect to encounter the Peruvian ambassador by coincidence while home, he said with a laugh.

When Ma reflected on his conversation with the Ambassador during the delivery, he stated that it inspired him to continue studying Spanish and contribute more to the development of the China-Peru relationship.

Ambassador Luis Quesada with a lantern 

Peru and China have deep ties, with nearly one in every ten Peruvians having Chinese ancestors—and China is currently Peru’s largest trading partner. According to a December 2021 report from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) of Peru, China-Peru trade accounted for 31.5 percent of Peru’s total trade in the previous 12 months, with total trade from January to September between the two countries reaching $23.153 billion, up 58.2 percent YOY.

In addition to quinoa, chocolate, and lovely alpaca figurines ordered by Ma, many quality goods of Peruvian origin are available on JD.com, which has been committed to meeting domestic consumers’ increasing demand for quality and variety of goods. In the last two years, JD.com’s purchase of imported brand goods has exceeded RMB 310 billion yuan.

 

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

With the approaching steps of Chinese New Year, Dr. Palitha Kohona, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China, knocked on the door of a Beijing couple’s home, with his companion Mr. Sampath Perera, tea promotion officer from the embassy, and a JD courier. His mission was to deliver a new year parcel of a can of premium Ceylon tea to consumers, and to thank them for their purchase of Sri Lanka products.

The couple are tea aficionados, and tea has become an integral part of their lives during their spare time. They even set up a private tea house, where the Ambassador visited. Ambassador Kohona is a tea expert, he showed them how to make the Ceylon black tea on the spot.

Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Palitha Kohona (left) and Mr. Sampath Perera (right), tea promotion officer from the embassy, celebrate Chinese New Year with a Chinese couple in their Beijing home

The Ambassador said that 15 million kilograms of tea were exported to China from Sri Lanka in 2020, and the country hopes to double the volume within three years. In January 2021, a Sri Lanka national pavilion was launched on JD.com to promote local products including Ceylon tea.

The couple was also lucky to receive a gift from Ambassador Kohona, a carefully selected tea box with a gift card signed by the Ambassador and marked with the national emblem of Sri Lanka.

“It is a rare memory in my diplomatic career to deliver New Year goods to local Chinese with the JD courier,” said the Ambassador. He was excited to have the opportunity to visit a Chinese home, learn about the couple’s lives and enjoy the sweet time spent together like family.

Ambassador Palitha Kohona was among the other eight Ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru and Rwanda to participate in JD.com’s new year parcel delivery activity.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

Ahead of the Chinese New Year of the Tiger, James Kimonyo, Rwandan Ambassador to China was invited by JD.com to deliver a new year parcel to the doorstep of a consumer, as the Chief Promoting Officer of Products from Rwanda, accompanied by a JD courier.

Ambassador James Kimonyo (right) in JD courier suit to deliver the parcel

The Ambassador handed a bag of Rwandan coffee beans bought by the consumer Ms. Zhou from JD during the e-commerce company’s Chinese New Year Grand Promotion. As a staff from the China-Africa Business Council, Ms. Zhou was first impressed by Rwanda’s coffee during her previous business trips to this country. Now she can easily enjoy the silky East African coffee with her families and friends, thanks to the fast development of cross-border e-commerce.

“E-commerce has brought more and more African goods to Chinese families,” said Ambassador James Kimonyo. He believes there are many local specialties in Rwanda that are of needs among Chinese consumers, such as avocado oil and more. He is a true ambassador of Rwandan products and has taken part in quite a few livestreaming sessions to promote his hometown goods to Chinese consumers. The Ambassador is keen to promote the launch of Rwanda Pavilion on JD Worldwide, JD.com’s import and cross-border e-commerce marketplace, through which more diversified Rwandan products can be accessed by JD’s 550 million customers.

Ambassador James Kimonyo (left) and the consumer Ms. Zhou (middle)

Ambassador James Kimonyo also presented Ms. Zhou with a certificate of thanks emblazoned with the national emblem of Rwanda and his own signature, thanking her for purchasing Rwandan goods.

The Ambassador was among the other eight Ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru and Sri Lanka to participate in JD.com’s new year parcel delivery activity.

This year also marks the tenth consecutive year that JD.com provides delivery during the Chinese New Year holiday. The company allocates RMB 400 million yuan allowances for frontline employees such as couriers and warehouse staff working during the holiday.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

Argentina’s red shrimps, Chilean cherries, Danish butter cookies, Malaysian durians and Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka…… As the Chinese spring festival draws closer, Chinese consumers’ demand for imported foreign specialties is also rising as sales data shows on JD.com.

It is high time for JD couriers to deliver these festival goods and gifts to millions of Chinese families. To some lucky Beijing residents’ surprise, they find their orders appeared at their doorsteps together with the ambassadors of the countries where the products originate.

These ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka, are invited by JD.com as special delivery envoys who embarked on the mission to shadow JD’s busy couriers in driving the electric tricycles, trotting through residence and office compounds and climbing up old building stairs, in order to meet face-to-face with Chinese customers who fancy their countries’ products and culture and exchange their respective stories for deeper mutual understanding and friendship.

In order to promote import business, especially cross-border business from various countries, and to enhance mutual understanding between diplomats and local people, 10 senior diplomats, including 8 ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Charge D’affaire with rank of ambassador from Danish Embassy, Italian Trade Commissioner in Beijing on behalf of the Italian ambassador, were invited by JD.com as special delivery envoys who embarked on the mission to shadow JD’s couriers in driving the electric tricycles, trotting through residence and office compounds and climbing up old building stairs, in order to meet face-to-face with local Chinese customers who ordered their countries’ products, and exchange their respective stories for deeper mutual understanding and friendship.

These undercover missions in which some of the ambassadors dressed in JD couriers’ red uniform and wore the company’s employee ID badges with their honorary title of “Chief Promoting officer”,  started on Jan 5, before the launch of the Chinese New Year (CNY) Grand Promotion on January 9^th until the “little new year” day, which falls on the 25^th this year and traditionally marks the official beginning of the spring festival preparation, also known as the Festival of the Kitchen King, which explains the reason why most of the ordered products are for eating and drinking.

All the products involved in this plan are imported by JD Worldwide, the cross-border e-commerce and JD Fresh, the fresh produce department of JD.com. Some highlights of the delivery mission include:

• Argentine Ambassador H.E. Sabino Vaca Narvaja sent Argentine red wine and red shrimps to a special customer, 84-year-old former Chinese Ambassador to Argentina, H.E. Xu Yicong, who believes the “redness” was auspicious for the new year. On the first week of JD’s CNY Grand Promotion, sales of Argentine wine pavilion site on JD.com increased 150% compared with the previous week.

• Chilean Ambassador H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes shoulder-carried a box of Chilean cherries to Ms. Zhang’s home. Ambassador Schmidt shared his memory that when he first came to China in 1991, he had dreamt of bringing Chile’s wines and fruits to China, but the far distance between the two countries made the idea too hard to realize then. Some 30 years later today, China has become Chilean cherries’ largest market in the world and in 2021, JD Fresh quadrupled its year-on-year direct-purchase of Chilean fruits.

• Danish Embassy’s Charge D’Affaire Dorthe Lange delivered butter cookies to a Danish language teacher who had studied in Denmark for a year, and Ms. Lange brought her a “Royal Copenhagen” chinaware as a gift to the teacher. Ms. Lange is the only female diplomat participating this program. They enjoyed a very pleasant conversation in Danish.

• Georgian Ambassador H.E. Archil Kalandia delivered a bottle of Georgian brandy to Mr. Zhu’s home. The ambassador spoke fluent Mandarin and proudly introduced Georgia as the world’s “birthplace of wines”. He also expressed that he is glad to see Chinese consumers have the opportunity to taste the oldest vantage Georgian wines through JD.com. The ambassador also taught the Chinese customers to say “bottoms up” in Georgian.

• Due to the travel quarantine restriction, Italian Ambassador to China had assigned Mr. Gianpaolo Bruno, Italian Trade Commissioner in Beijing, to participate this event on his behalf. Mr. Bruno delivered Italian chocolate to a customer surnamed Zhang, who is a veteran industry designer and loves Italian chocolate all his life. Zhang is innovating his design on ski boots, targeting Winter Olympics in Milan 2026. Bruno and Zhang both wish the great success of Beijing and Milan Winter Olympics.

• Malaysian Ambassador H.E. Raja Dato’ Nushirwan Zainal Abidin delivered durians and pineapple cakes to an overseas Chinese who runs media business in Kuala Lumpur and currently stuck in Beijing due to the pandemic. The ambassador emphasized that Malaysia is the second largest trade partner with China among ASEAN countries, and he hopes Chinese customers have more chance to enjoy high quality products from Malaysia, for example, durians and bird’s nests.

• Moldovan Ambassador H.E. Dumitru Braghis also sent his country’s wines to the home of Mr. Li Xiaobai’s, a popular Marathon grand slam runner in China. He told the ambassador that he learnt that Moldova has the world’s biggest underground wine cellar with a total of 200 kilometers in length, and said that maybe one day he can host a unique Marathon game in this place.

• Peruvian Ambassador H.E. Luis Quesada sent chocolates, quinoa and alpaca dolls to a student who has studied in Lima for 6 years and now enjoy his vacation in Beijing. The ambassador was very happy to point out that Peru has very long and deep relations with China, and he hoped that the sales of Peru National Pavilion on JD.com will have an even greater growth.

• Rwandan Ambassador H.E. James Kimonyo delivered the country’s coffee ordered by a staff working at the China-African Business Council. Mr. Kimonyo noted that convenient e-commerce infrastructure plays a positive role in connecting Chinese consumers with more and more African products and presents new opportunities for Africa’s agricultural development.

• Sri Lankan Ambassador H.E. Dr. Palitha Kohona sent Ceylon tea to a couple surnamed Zhang. As a tea expert, Dr. Kohona was invited to demonstrate the tea making process in their home. He pointed out that in 2020, Sri Lanka exported 15 million kilograms of tea to China, and he hopes the number will grow to 30 million in the next three years. Mr. Sampath Perera, the tea promoting officer at the Sri Lankan Embassy, accompanied the ambassador’s delivery trip.

In the past two years from 2020 to 2021, JD spent more than 310 billion RMB or $43.3 billion USD on imported products purchase, serving as the primary gateway for international brands to China and driving cross-border consumption on the Chinese market.

On the logistics side, this year marks the 10th year in a row that JD.com commits to delivery service in all parts of the country during the Spring Festival holidays, ensuring that customers across the country can receive their orders on time.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)