Alibaba Group
pulls out all the stops for the largest Chinese festival on the
calendar, due to start January 28. The company has kicked off its second
Ali Chinese New Year Shopping Festival (阿里年货节) with a lineup of
activities that not only encourage trade between urban and rural areas.
Using
its strengths in marketplace, big data and logistics, Alibaba will
again connect rural communities with city dwellers so the latter can
stock up on Spring Festival supplies while giving rural economies a
lift.
Sun Lijun, VP, Alibaba Group, who oversees the company’s rural business
division, said, “Alibaba strives to create closer connections between
urban and rural areas in China, narrowing the wealth gap and improving
the living standard of those who live in villages. Having launched Rural
Taobao in 2014, we are continuing to do more than just promoting online
trade – we are striving to serve the real needs of village dwellers by
also making health services, entrepreneurial support, public welfare
services and more available to them.”
Tmall.com’s fresh food
channel will introduce fresh fruit and meat produce from abroad – such
as cherries from Australia and orange roughies from New Zealand – to
Chinese consumers. At the same time, meat from the
countryside – including beef from the Horqin Grassland of Inner Mongolia and mutton from Yanchi County of Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region – will be brought to dining tables in the cities.