Hungry Hong Kong customers call on Shenzhen couriers for braised bullfrog, duck neck and other mainland Chinese delicacies
- ‘Daigou’ couriers take orders online before picking up food, drinks and snacks to bring to Hong Kong
- Customers are a mix of Hongkongers and mainland Chinese who miss specialities from across the border
The 21-year-old mainland Chinese university student had five food deliveries, including pastries and cooked dishes such as stewed bullfrog, spicy stir-fried duck and chicken offal.
He is part of a trend dubbed daigou, which means “buying on behalf of” in Chinese, with agents earning a profit from purchasing mostly food items in Shenzhen to deliver to clients in Hong Kong.
It is a reverse of what has gone on for a long time, where agents would buy goods such as milk powder, skincare products and luxury items in Hong Kong to take to customers on the mainland.
When the Post accompanied Ye on a recent delivery trip, he took about three hours to collect all the cooked food and snacks in Shenzhen for his Hong Kong customers.
He went to a Hunan cuisine restaurant in a downtown shopping centre, queued for meat floss cakes at a bakery, and waited at a metro station for his takeaway orders to arrive.
Once on the Hong Kong side, he delivered the items one by one at MTR stations, handing them to clients at the ticket barriers.
It was 6.45pm when he called it a day and headed back to Shenzhen, having earned 210 yuan (US$29) in delivery fees.
