BEIJING — China's postal and courier sector continued robust expansion in 2021, handling over 50 billion courier packages in the first half of the year, according to the State Post Bureau.

As of July 4, the sector's business volume had neared the level for the whole of 2018, said the bureau, attributing the fast expansion to the continuous growth of the Chinese economy, the upgrade of consumption promotion and the improvement of services in rural areas.

Rural areas have provided important momentum for the sector's business growth. About 30 percent of the parcels handled this year were sent to rural areas as service accessibility continued to expand at the village level.

In the second quarter, the sector's monthly business volume was around 10 billion items, which shows the resilience, vitality and growth potential of China's express delivery market, said the bureau.

At present, around 300 million courier parcels are delivered daily on average, serving around 600 million customers, data from the bureau shows.