This year’s Singles Day shopping spree has brought record sales for e-commerce platforms around the country.

The vast number of transactions means that China’s transportation system will be extremely busy due to the enormous volume of parcels that will need to be delivered in the coming weeks.

This year’s hectic transportation period is expected to last for 20 days, up from 10 days in previous years.

To speed up deliveries, China Railway Harbin Bureau is using high-speed rail services to move parcels.

Statistics from the bureau on Nov 11 show that it has shipped a total of 27,941 express parcels weighing 352.8 metric tons, an increase of 14,236 parcels and 159.2 tons year-on-year. Both the parcel volume and weight hit new records.

On average, a total of 79 trains are arranged daily for high-speed rail express service. Among them, 73 passenger trains use special cargo storage space to handle high-speed rail express services from Harbin to more than 30 cities in China.

Harbin’s railway bureau has reserved carriages for parcels on high-speed trains running on the Harbin-Shanghai route for the first time.

It has also provided food transportation services for beef and mutton producers in Hulunbuir city and Xin Barga Left Banner in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region this year, to ensure that fresh products could be delivered to their destinations via high-speed rail in the shortest time.

As of Nov 11, Harbin’s railway bureau has forwarded and transported 455 pieces of grassland beef and mutton weighing 9,424 kilograms through Hailaar Station.