Caption: Laowang, China, Credit: Cui Xinyu
Image by: Cui Xinyu 
Laowang, China 

Express Mail Driver

Series: WORKING
From: Homelands Productions
Length: 00:06:40

Sandy Tolan profiles a driver for a Chinese express mail company whose real passions are his daughter and his pigeons. Read the full description.
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Express Mail Driver
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Homelands Productions

1_small Every weekday, Mr. Wang says goodbye to his daughter and his beloved pigeons in an old-fashioned Beijing neighborhood, mounts his bicycle and ventures into the chaos of the city. His destination is a local post office, where he parks his bike and climbs into a green express mail van. Over the last 12 years, Mr. Wang (known as Laowang, or "Wang the Elder") has picked up perhaps a quarter million packages destined for dozens of countries. Does he ever wonder what's in those packages? Or who will receive them on the other end? Or why there's such a big rush? "No," he says, "I just want to make some money!" Sandy Tolan's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

Express Mail Driver | 00:06:40

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Piece Description

Every weekday, Mr. Wang says goodbye to his daughter and his beloved pigeons in an old-fashioned Beijing neighborhood, mounts his bicycle and ventures into the chaos of the city. His destination is a local post office, where he parks his bike and climbs into a green express mail van. Over the last 12 years, Mr. Wang (known as Laowang, or "Wang the Elder") has picked up perhaps a quarter million packages destined for dozens of countries. Does he ever wonder what's in those packages? Or who will receive them on the other end? Or why there's such a big rush? "No," he says, "I just want to make some money!" Sandy Tolan's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

The global express mail business hasn't just blossomed into a quarter-of-a-trillion dollar industry. It has also become a model of efficiency, moving millions of packages a day with hardly a hiccup. You can thank the engineers who designed the spectacularly complex routing and delivery systems -- and you can also thank people like Mr. Wang [pronounced WONG]. Reporter Sandy Tolan's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions.

OUTRO:

That was Sandy Tolan reporting. WORKING is produced by Homelands Productions in collaboration with Marketplace Radio. To see pictures and hear audio, go to working.homelands.org. While you're there, you can also tell the world what you think about YOUR job.

Additional Credits

WORKING is a collaboration between Homelands Productions and Marketplace Radio. Major funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Related Website

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/segments/working/wang.html

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