China To Offer Hand Delivered E-Mail The Associated Press Thursday, July 11, 2002; 9:25 AM BEIJING -- It's not quite e-mail. It's not quite regular mail. What it will be, China's postal service hopes, is a convenient alternative for customers who use the Internet - and a moneymaker for the government. China Post, the official postal service for the world's most populous nation, said Thursday it will introduce a new service enabling people to write mail on their computers, send it to the post office over the Internet like e-mail, then have it delivered anywhere in China by human mail carrier. Computer mailing services are already offered in some Chinese provinces and regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, according to a China Post spokesman who gave only his surname, Wang. He said the services will be extended to remaining provinces Monday. There is a large potential market for computer-to-snail mail. According to government figures, mainland China had 33.7 million Internet users at the end of last year. In a country of 1.3 billion, that means only a tiny fraction has access to e-mail. For now, China Post expects the service's main customers to be medium-sized and small companies and individual entrepreneurs. It's a bit more costly than a normal letter, which now costs about 10 U.S. cents. With the new service, the first sheet will be about 24 cents and the next three will be 6 cents each. Letters will be limited to four pages, China Post said. It said the post office will automatically print out the mail, put it in an envelope and send it on its way.
That's what you call Lazy Chinese. Just walk to or ride your bike to the Post Office and you'll be getting exercise and getting the same money back.
Uh, the Chinese aren't exatly known for being lazy, and I'm sure many of them would resent being dubbed as such. But in any case, it's an innovative idea worthy of a shot; after all, China is one of the two largest nations in the world. Post offices aren't always convienient for everyone to get to, whether by walking, bike, or car, and this method saves time and productivity from workers who would have to take time off from their jobs to complete such a task. It costs more, but that's the price of convienience for you. It's still cheaper to mail a letter there than it is here, no matter the method.
Way lazier than the way Americans do it. WTF?? They could get themselves a whole lot of exercise and can skip postage expenses entirely if they run the letter over themselves instead of using the post office.
I guess the Chinese government figures since they're reading all the email anyway that they might as well just charge to deliver it and make some money off of it.
I think Im missing something here. Whats the point? Wouldnt you rather get an email instantly by checking on your computer? I know the benefits for using snail mail is it can be hand written and more personalized, but if the post office is printing it anyway, whats the advantage?
