- Chris McMillan
Across China: Life blossoms for disabled people selling flowers online
Xinhua
18th September 2020
Across China: Life blossoms for disabled people selling flowers online
On the second floor of a building in Nanjing Road, a spacious room is awash with the sound of keyboard typing, phone calls, and occasional laughter.
Located in the city of Fuyang, east China's Anhui Province, it's part of an "incubation base" for a group of young people selling fresh flowers online. But there is something special about their pose: they are all people with disabilities.
"Don't worry, your flowers have been sent and will arrive tomorrow," the wheelchair-bound Zhang Li typed in a dialogue online. She then quickly typed in the words, "I will ask them to make it quick," and ending the sentence with a cute, smiling emoji.
Zhang, 35, lost her legs in an accident when she was a child. A resident of Fuyang's Yingzhou District, she currently handles aftersales inquiries for a flower shop on Taobao, a major platform under China's e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba. The flower shop is called Fuyang Qianhuahui Commercial and Trade Co., Ltd. Zhang was introduced to the company in May last year by the local disabled persons' federation.