“Do you know the average per capita monthly income in our county? It’s about 2,000 yuan ($292.6). And do you know how much I make? On average, 4,000 yuan per month,” Cui Dawei, a food delivery man, told People’s Daily Online with a proud smile on his face.

Cui is an ex-serviceman in Kazuo Mongolian autonomous county, Chaoyang, northeast China’s Liaoning province. The county used to be one of the 15 key counties in Liaoning province’s poverty relief and development endeavors.

Cui poses for a photo in Meituan Dianping’s local branch office in Kazuo Mongolian autonomous county. (People's Daily Online/Tong Zongli)

Finding a suitable job was once the biggest problem for Cui, as he didn’t know what kind of job could enable him to support his family while taking care of his aging father and baby boy.

Three years ago, after hearing that food delivery men could earn as much as 10,000 yuan a month while enjoying flexible working hours, Cui quite his old job and joined China’s food delivery giant Meituan Dianpin as a delivery man.

During the first month, Cui could only handle 10 to 20 orders a day, as he wasn’t familiar with the locations of various restaurants and residential areas. Other problems like deductions from his pay for client complaints and compensation for car damage caused during work rounds frustrated him a lot.

Finding the job dull and laborious, Cui almost backed down in front of difficulties during the first month. Thinking of his father and son, he decided to carry on with the job and saw the daunting problems he faced soon resolve.

Meituan Dianping rolled out poverty relief measures to help newly recruited food delivery people in the county adapt to the new job quickly through systematic training courses and guidance of experienced employees. The company also bought comprehensive insurance for its delivery people to free them from worries about traffic accident claims.

After going through the hard initial period, Cui has quickly mastered relevant skills and has seen his number of orders and salary rise gradually. Now he can handle 30 to 40 orders per day, and has enough time to send his son to school and pick up him after school.

Most importantly, although his monthly income hasn’t reach 10,000 yuan yet, his current average monthly income is already quite decent in his county.

Being a food delivery man means the harder you work, the more you earn. In the old days, it seemed that it was impossible for Cui to have a job and enough time to take care of his family. However, now he is living in a bigger rented house with his son and has enough time to take care of his father while keeping a job. Cui feels that he has totally changed his life through hard work.

In fact, there are 90 delivery people like Cui in Meituan Dianping’s local branch in Kazuo Mongolian autonomous county.

Thanks to the employment opportunities generated by the development of the country’s booming digital economy, these people have secure jobs near their homes, enjoy a better life, bring convenience to local residents and inject vitality into the city.