Illustration: Tang Tengfei/GT

Wine, cordyceps, natural drinking water, and cultural and creative products … more than 300 specialty products from the Xizang Autonomous Region in Southwest China attracted attention from consumers at the Sixth China International Consumer Products Expo in Hainan, South China, this week. Meanwhile, on livestreaming e-commerce platforms, Xizang specialties such as yak meat, apples, and tsampa continue to gain popularity every day.

These products from the plateau are increasingly entering the broader consumer market nationwide, and behind this trend lies the growing strength of cross-regional logistics infrastructure that supports their circulation.

As of Monday, the total volume of goods transported into and out of the Xizang region via the Qinghai-Xizang Railway exceeded 100 million tons, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

On July 1, 2006, the Qinghai-Xizang Railway was fully opened to traffic. Over the past two decades, railway freight volumes into and out of Xizang have steadily increased and continued to reach new highs.

Freight entering the Xizang region increased from 340,000 tons in 2006 to 6.908 million tons in 2025, representing an average annual growth rate of 17.2 percent. Freight exiting the region rose from 21,000 tons in 2006 to 1.405 million tons in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of 24.8 percent.

The mark of 100 million tons and the double-digit growth can serve as micro-level entry points that reflect the broader picture of China's logistics network continuously extending into its geographic periphery, as well as its progress and development. It also illustrates how this logistics network helps promote consumption and industrial growth.

When Xizang's apples and tsampa are transported via the Qinghai-Xizang Railway and reach supermarkets in Shanghai, and when electronic products from eastern coastal regions reach households in Lhasa through the same corridor, the railway is effectively helping the region to realize consumption and industry growth.

Regular freight trains carrying daily necessities into Xizang have been operating on a routine basis, transporting a total of 7,215 tons of fresh goods such as vegetables in 2025, with transit times reduced to within 48 hours. Meanwhile, a new service for transporting self-driving tour vehicles has been introduced, with about 5,000 vehicles shipped in 2025, according to local media reports.

Sufficient transportation capacity not only helps meet the growing consumption needs of residents in Xizang and improves their quality of life, but also drives the growth of local industries such as e-commerce and tourism.

Xizang's online retail sales exceeded 28 billion yuan ($4.1 billion) in 2025, up nearly 20 percent year-on-year. Over the past 12 months, there were 13,979 active online stores, 644 related enterprises, and 75,635 people employed in the sector, effectively contributing to job creation, according to official data.

The region's rapid growth of its e-commerce sector in 2025 revitalized traditional industries and supported the rise of new niche sectors, becoming an important driver of regional industrial growth. 

For example, Nagqu has promoted the integration of agriculture and animal husbandry with e-commerce by launching online platforms for cordyceps and yak products, enabling full traceability from production to sales and significantly increasing brand value.

The Xizang region's economic performance in recent years demonstrates that China's infrastructure progress is continuously driving overall industries and consumption growth. For businesses, this means that the last mile of the national market is being opened up with unprecedented density, generating sustained logistics flows that are gradually being converted into measurable economic gains in consumption.

China's rural postal and express delivery system has undergone further improvements, with the proportion of express delivery volume in central and western regions continuing to increase. In the first 10 months of 2025, express delivery volume in provincial-level regions, including Guizhou, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang, grew more than 30 percent year-on-year, according to people.cn.

As logistics networks in regions such as Xizang continue to expand, the development of the consumer sector will be further supported by improving connectivity, strengthening the link between production and consumption across wider geographic areas. This trend underscores the growing role of infrastructure as a structural driver of China's domestic demand expansion and industry growth.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn