Postman spends 16 years making mountain deliveries in central China's Hunan

Aerial photo shows postman Yang Zhengui riding a motorcycle on a winding mountain road. (Photo/Xiao Qilong)

Over the past 16 years, postman Yang Zhengui has always been able to help letters and parcels reach their destinations via a zigzagging road on a mountain that is more than 1,300 meters high.

Yang, who is nearly 60 years old, is the only postman from his post office who provides delivery services in mountainous areas. In order to get to the office from his home, which is more than 30 kilometers away, by 8 a.m., he has stuck to the routine of getting up at around 5 a.m. on workdays.

Before hitting the road, Yang sorts the parcels he is going to deliver in his post office, which is a branch of China Post located in Nanyue district of Hengyang city, central China's Hunan Province.

An experienced deliveryman, Yang can complete his sorting in just over 30 minutes.

The delivery route, which starts from Yuelin village and ends in Chuanshan village, is the longest of the three routes Yang is in charge of. He has to ride more than 70 kilometers round trip along the mountain road for nearly three hours to complete the deliveries.

Yang said he only suspends delivery services on days with heavy rain or when the road becomes inaccessible after being covered with ice. However, when the parcels need to be delivered urgently, he will always find a way to send them to the villagers, even if it’s on foot, regardless of the bad weather.

In 2007, when Yang was a newbie, the paved road was not yet completed and he had to deliver the parcels on foot for nearly one year. "The bags weighed about 35 to 40 kg and I had to carry them with a shoulder pole, walking over 30 km a day," said Yang, adding that in winter when the road became slippery with ice, he had to wear a pair of straw sandals so that he wouldn’t slip.

Before Yang started his job, his older brother and father had also been postmen working this route since the late 1990s. Together with Yang, who is set to retire this August, the father and his brother have provided delivery services along the route for over 20 years.

Over the past 16 years, Yang has traveled more than 400,000 km during his delivery missions and worn out four motorcycles. Although the trips were arduous, Yang said he felt a sense of reward and satisfaction when he saw the smiling faces of the villagers after they received their parcels.

"In the past, I delivered mostly letters and remittance bills to the villagers. Nowadays, I deliver more parcels and documents to them," said Yang. "In the future, deliverymen may stop delivering by motorcycle. If I were a few years younger, I would get a driver's license and drive a car so that I could deliver for a few more years," Yang said.