Why can Langfang, Hebei, become the "Northern Heart" of China's express delivery industry?

If you are a friend with experience of living in Beijing, you may notice an interesting phenomenon: most express deliveries purchased online are transferred in Langfang, Hebei before entering Beijing.

There are numerical bases behind this feeling. In Langfang, 18 million express deliveries are transferred here every day, and about half of them are destined for Beijing.

Langfang is also known as the "Northern Heart" in the express delivery industry and is a must - fight place for logistics giants.

With an area of less than 6,500 square kilometers, eight leading enterprises such as China Post, SF Express, JD.com, "STO, YTO, ZTO, BEST and Yunda", and J&T Express have established regional headquarters or operation centers here. International logistics enterprises such as eBay and FedEx are also making layouts.

In 2024, the added value of Langfang's modern business and logistics industry reached 94.88 billion yuan, accounting for 24.3% of the GDP.

In February this year, Langfang was identified as a national logistics hub for business and trade services.

Logistics, an ordinary - looking industry, has been developed by Langfang into an economic pillar industry.

01 Amid the Sunken Boats, a Thousand Sails Race Forward

Let me tell you a little story first.

At 1:08 a.m. on April 8, 2017, an urgent phone rang in the duty room of the Cultural Relics Management Office in Langfang City, Hebei Province.

It turned out that the call was transferred from the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau: someone was illegally excavating a sunken ship in the old canal course east of Wangjiabai Village, Xianghe County, Langfang City.

As the situation was urgent, the staff went to investigate overnight and carried out rescue cleaning, and found a large number of cultural relics such as porcelain and city bricks.

Some of the blue bricks had vertical stamped inscriptions (relief characters) on the brick ribs, from which words such as "Made by Hu Yongcheng, the kiln owner, and Wang Yuncheng, the foreman, in the 37th year of the Wanli reign" and "Li Ying, the kiln owner, in the 38th year" could be recognized.

It turned out that this ship was loaded with city bricks produced in Linqing, Shandong during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and was transported to Beijing via the Grand Canal by water transport, but unfortunately sank at the Wangjiabai Ferry in Xianghe on the way.

A bird's - eye view of the sunken ship site east of Wangjiabai

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Beijing - Hangzhou Grand Canal opened for water transport every spring. Thousands of sails set out, and the transport boats were as numerous as a web. The grain and wealth from the south flowed mightily towards the capital.

Xianghe County, which now belongs to Langfang City, was indeed the last stop before the canal entered Tongzhou. The transport boats completed their final arrangement and transfer here before entering Beijing.

The poem "The strength of the people in the southeast is transported here, and the military supplies in the northwest are provided from here" reveals the important position of the Xianghe section of the Grand Canal in the entire imperial economic system.

An excerpt from "The Scroll of Supervision and Transportation on the Luhe River"

Actually, the positioning and development of a city are first and foremost closely related to its geographical location.

Take Langfang for example. Although the Qing government announced the abolition of water transport in 1901, and Xianghe, once a place "teeming with boats and people", became quiet, a new city, Langfang, was born because the Beijing - Tianjin Railway was opened in 1897. As the saying goes, "Once the train rings, a fortune comes in."

Even today, a large amount of supplies still pass through Langfang on their way to Beijing, Tianjin and other places. However, the old water - transport docks are long gone, replaced by modern express sorting centers and efficient logistics networks.

Langfang, the prefecture - level city with the smallest area in the province, has gathered global logistics giants.

The express sorting workshop of the second - phase project of the Northern Headquarters Base of YTO Express

Just in terms of express delivery, an average of 18 million express deliveries are transferred in Langfang every day, and the number of express deliveries entering and leaving Beijing reaches 8.25 million.

In 2024, the total volume of express delivery services in Langfang exceeded 1.718 billion pieces. The added value of the modern business and logistics industry reached 94.88 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 9.2%, accounting for 24.3% of the GDP.

The logistics industry here is not only large - scale but also highly efficient. The total social logistics cost accounts for 13.3% of the GDP, 0.8 and 0.7 percentage points lower than the national and provincial levels respectively.

If you enter the Northern Headquarters Base of YTO Express in Yongqing County, Langfang, you will be surprised to see intelligent robots shuttling on the tracks and parcels flowing at high speed on 30 fully automatic sorting lines. It only takes a minimum of 10 minutes from unloading, sorting to loading.

From the throat of ancient water transport to the heart of modern logistics, this really corresponds to the poem by Liu Yuxi: "Amid the sunken boats, a thousand sails race forward; before the sick trees, ten thousand trees are in spring."

What makes Langfang achieve this?

02 The Logistics Genes Are Activated

Most people will subconsciously marvel at Langfang's location when looking at the map.

Langfang is located in the core hinterland of the "Golden Triangle" formed by Beijing, Tianjin and Xiongan. It is only 50 kilometers away from Tiananmen in Beijing, 80 kilometers from Tianjin Port, and 70 kilometers from the Xiongan New Area.

A detached part under the jurisdiction of Langfang City, the so - called "Three Northern Counties", is tightly sandwiched between the two municipalities directly under the Central Government, Beijing and Tianjin. Such a geographical advantage is a scarce resource in any era.

Langfang is located in the core hinterland of the "Golden Triangle" formed by Beijing, Tianjin and Xiongan

The advantageous location and developed transportation are the genes of this city, which have been re - activated in modern times.

Starting from the urban area today, there are three major international airports within a one - hour drive at the fastest, and it is only 26 kilometers from Beijing Daxing International Airport.

There are also four major ports around Langfang, including Tianjin Port and Tangshan Port. There are 10 railways, 13 expressways and 27 national and provincial trunk roads in the city, with the highest road network density in the province (181.2 kilometers per 100 square kilometers for roads, including 8.79 kilometers per 100 square kilometers for expressways).

With good location conditions, transportation advantages, and seven characteristic industrial clusters with an output value of over 10 billion yuan in the surrounding area, the potential for developing the modern business and logistics industry is enormous.

As the arrow was on the string, Langfang's "No. 1 Project" came into being.

03 The Ambition of the "No. 1 Project"

Since 2022, Langfang has identified the modern business and logistics industry as the "No. 1 Project" and has made overall plans to build a northern modern business and logistics base.

There is a saying in the express delivery circle: "In the south, there is Qingpu in Shanghai; in the north, there is Langfang in Hebei", which means that these two places are the most suitable places for logistics hubs in South and North China respectively.

Just like creating a personal persona, Langfang has continuously strengthened and solidified this statement, making it the city's label.

On the one hand, it attracts leading express delivery projects, and on the other hand, it consolidates the spatial pattern of express delivery enterprise headquarters.

The North China Transfer Center of YTO Express in Yongqing, Langfang

For example, in 2020, the Northern Headquarters of YTO Express was relocated from Beijing to Yongqing, Langfang. The first - phase project was put into production only 140 days after signing the contract, which was amazingly fast.

After the second - phase project of the intelligent logistics sorting center was put into operation in October 2024, with the support of intelligent technology, the daily processing capacity increased directly from 6 million pieces to 12 million pieces, and the single - piece express delivery cost decreased from 0.85 yuan to 0.15 yuan, a decrease of more than 80%.

Now, the Northern Headquarters Base Project of YTO Express is the largest express sorting hub base of YTO Express in the northern region.

Moreover, taking the opportunity of relieving non - capital functions, an ecosystem centered on logistics and transportation is booming.

A bird's - eye view of Yunshang Town in Yongqing County, Langfang. Picture source/Langfang Media Network

In the past two years, Langfang has precisely undertaken a large number of industries from Beijing and Tianjin that "have no room, cannot be separated, and cannot go far away", and has efficiently empowered these industries through excellent logistics.

For example, in Yunshang Town, Yongqing County, more than 3,800 clothing and apparel merchants, more than 1,000 clothing production enterprises, and more than 200 independent designer studios have settled in, making it a one - stop procurement and wholesale distribution center for the clothing industry "online + offline". Merchants place orders in the morning and ship in the afternoon, and the proportion of next - day delivery of express deliveries in the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region exceeds 95%.

The Gu'an (International) Trade City in Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region has taken in more than 4,000 merchants from the original Beijing Zoo Wholesale Market and Dahongmen Market. The supporting logistics distribution center has 70 express delivery enterprises settled in, with 220 direct - operating logistics lines and more than 500 transfer lines.

In this way, logistics enterprises are no longer just transportation service providers but organizers of the industrial ecosystem; manufacturing enterprises are no longer just producers but participants in the supply chain.

04 National - Level Logistics Hub

As early as 2014, the country has promoted the coordinated development of the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region as a major national strategy.

A city cannot develop in isolation. Langfang has seized this once - in - a - millennium opportunity. By connecting with Beijing and Tianjin through transportation, precisely undertaking industries, and building a foundation with ecological and intelligent elements, it has upgraded from a "satellite city" to a "functional strategic pivot city". This is not only a key support for the national strategy but also the driving force for its own urban development.

The most important project example is Beijing Daxing International Airport, which straddles Beijing and Langfang.

On September 25, 2019, Daxing Airport was officially opened to traffic. The airport - centered airport - economic zone with a total planned area of 150 square kilometers also opened its arms to the world. One - third of the 150 - square - kilometer area is in Beijing, and two - thirds is in Langfang, Hebei.

The overall plan of the Beijing Daxing International Airport Airport - Economic Zone (2019 - 2035)

This is the first and only airport - economic zone across provincial administrative regions in the country. It also has the first free trade zone and comprehensive bonded area across provincial administrative regions in the country, with the policy advantage of the superposition of three zones.

Together with the 12 international freight trains to Europe and Central Asia that have been opened and 113 import - export channels to 113 countries, the freight can cover more than 20 countries and regions.

Langfang has initially formed an international combined - transport model combining railways, cross - border highways, overseas railways, and waterways.

In February this year, Langfang was selected as a national logistics hub for business and trade services, and it is the only newly - added city in Hebei Province to undertake the national logistics hub.

05 The Core Is Logistics, but It's More Than Just Logistics

Driven by policies, Langfang has built industrial clusters and improved the business environment. Both the "visible" logistics and the "invisible" logistics have begun to thrive here.