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Episode details

World Service,01 Oct 2015,23 mins

Online Shopping in Rural China

Global Business

Available for over a year

In some villages in rural China they are replacing the sounds of chickens and farm life with something very 21st Century. In the village of Qing Yan Liu, four hours south of Shanghai, they have created a world of bubble wrap and sticky tape. The people here have embraced going online to become an internet shopping hub. In the eyes of the Chinese premier this could be the future of rural China. He hopes that more and more places will copy what has happened in 'China’s Number One E-Commerce village'. He wants to avoid what is happening in many other villages where all the young people have left in search of work and the place is gradually abandoned. Peter Day visits three countryside villages to hear how online shopping is transforming life in rural China. (Photo: Children holding umbrellas in a Chinese village)

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