BEIJING -- China's courier sector collected 1.34 billion parcels in the five-day May Day holiday which ended Wednesday, up 97.13 percent from the pre-pandemic level in 2019.

The data is 22.95 percent up from the same holiday in 2020, the State Post Bureau said Thursday.

Online sales of agricultural products continued to maintain rapid growth.

Express parcels received and delivered in rural areas went up about 30 percent year-on-year in the holiday. The growth rate is 10 percentage points higher than that in urban areas.

The May Day holiday lasted from May 1 to 5 this year.