Under the burning sun at a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius, 48-year-old Dang Jianbin is sorting out dozens of packages outside an office building near the second ring road of Beijing. It’s almost lunchtime, but he hasn’t had his breakfast yet. Dang’s only hope on such a hot day is to finish sending all the packages to their owners early and rest in the shade.
“I have no better options than working in the heat,” said Dang, a delivery man for one of China’s top courier-service companies, which he said he could not reveal without permission. “I have to make a living by doing this to support my children and my parents.”
Dang’s company pays a little bit more for each package he delivers on such hot days. Normally, he is paid 1.3 yuan (19 U.S. cents) per package, and it has been raised to 1.5 yuan since last week.
Even such small compensation is not paid to everyone. Chen Limei, a 35-year-old woman working for one of China’s biggest online food ordering platforms as a courier, said the company isn’t paying extra money during hot days. Chen has to work at least 10 hours a day, mostly outdoors on a scooter. She covers up all of her skin to avoid sunburn.
“I am not happy with it but what can I do? There are many people out there who are ready to take the job if I quit,” Chen said while busily dialing the numbers on the food packages to deliver them within the time limit set by the online ordering system.
“Low-income groups live in areas with much less green space and much higher density of population, so city planners should leave enough green public spaces for everyone to go to when they need to cool themselves,” she said.
