BEIJING, June 3 -- China's postal and express delivery sector handled more than 1.5 billion parcels during the just-concluded Dragon Boat Festival holiday, according to data released by the State Post Bureau on Tuesday.

The figure represents a 19.4 percent increase compared to the same holiday last year, the bureau said.

This year's Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, was celebrated on May 31, and the public holiday ran from May 31 to June 2.

Liu Jiang, an official with the bureau, said that during the mid-year peak season, postal and courier companies are scaling up the deployment of unmanned vehicles and constructing unmanned stations to enhance service convenience.

These companies are also upgrading their cold-chain logistics systems to effectively reduce losses of agricultural products during transit, Liu said.

In addition, the automation of county-level sorting centers and the standardization of township outlets are advancing, significantly enhancing rural courier services, Liu added.