Delivering the world to your doorstep 一机在手 天下我有

Tip-tap. Tick-tock. Knock-knock. 点点手机屏幕，敲两下键盘上，再点击购买。 That’s how we shop. 这就是我们现在的购物方式。 A few taps on my phone, a short wait and the goods arrive. 只需在手机上点两下，不需多久货物就可到达。 I’ve hardly set foot in a physical store since I set up my phone to enable me to make use of China’s vast e-commerce. 自从开通了手机购物功能后，我几乎再没去过实体店。 I’ve kept a tally and discovered I average around seven deliveries on days I don’t leave the house. 我会给自己买的东西记账，我发现在家的时候平均要收七次快递。 Three meals, groceries for later, detergent, earphones, water, diapers, towels, sweaters — indeed, all these necessities come to my door on the back of a bike as fast as the delivery man can bring them. 从一日三餐，再到后来的洗涤剂，耳机，水，尿布，毛巾，毛衣等杂货——事实上，所有这些必需品都会在快递员的后座上飞快的送达到我家门口。 That’s not to mention such … novelties I guess you could call them, as beer mugs adorned with Asian dragons that flash with multicolor lights, geodes for my daughter to break open and Star Wars-themed socks for my super-fan wife. 更不用说一些新奇的玩意儿（我想你们会这么称呼），比如印着许多闪闪发光的亚洲龙的啤酒杯，给我女儿玩的一些晶晶亮的石头，还有给我老婆买的星球大战主题袜子，她可是该系列电影的超级粉丝。 Basic Western food and drink like coffee and cheese were difficult to find when I first arrived in China 12 years ago. Acquiring them meant traveling to the handful of places across the city, such as the Friendship Store, that sold such goods and paying exorbitant prices. 12年前，我刚到中国时，很难发现像咖啡和奶酪等西方食品和饮料。要想买到得转遍全城，但只有很少的地方，如友谊商店才能买到这些东西，而且售价也非常高。 Fast forward to today — it’s still difficult to find such items as sourdough, salsa verde and French onion seasoning in any physical stores I’m aware of. (Other foreign fare, such as pretzels, salami and spaghetti sauce are now relatively easy to get at the handful of imported-food shops around the city.) 但现在，在我知道的所有实体店中，仍然很难找到像酵母、欧芹酱或法式洋葱调味料等物品。（椒盐脆饼，意大利香肠和意大利面酱这些外国食品在少数进口食品商店中相对容易买到。） But virtually any foodstuff from any corner of the globe is easily purchased on Taobao — and affordable. 但几乎来自全球任何角落的食品都可以轻松地在淘宝上买到，而且价格还很实惠。 Of course, we mostly eat Chinese staples, which are even cheaper and easier to find on shopping apps, and typically arrive within about 40 minutes. (Taobao takes days.) 当然，大多数时候我们会买中国食材，这些食材在购物软件里更容易找到，而且也更便宜，通常下单后40分钟内就可送达。（淘宝的话需要几天才能送达。） I haven’t visited a supermarket in months. Even though there’s one across the street from my apartment, a trip takes about an hour or so — longer if I have to tow the kids along. 我有几个月都没去过超市。我公寓对面就有一家，但去一次就得花大约一个小时，要是孩子缠着一起去超市，那时间会更长。 Now, I can shop in under a minute, leaving more time to play with my children, rather than drag — and sometimes chase — them through a shopping complex. 现在，我可以在一分钟内就买好东西，余下更多时间与孩子玩耍，而不是拖着他们去到超市，有时还得追着她在超市里到处乱跑。 I’ve absolutely detested shopping all my life. I used to try to buy all the clothes I’d need for a few years in one trip to get it over with. 我其实非常讨厌购物。曾经在一次旅行中，我买了够穿几年的衣服，为的就是以后就不用再买了。 But I’ve come to adore online shopping in China. That’s partly because of the novelty of the strange and surprising things you can find. 但在中国，我却很喜欢网上购物。部分原因在于我可以找到很多奇奇怪怪又让人感到惊奇的东西。 For instance, a human hamster wheel, an animatronic dancing caveman, bacon-shaped earrings, coffee mugs that make it look like you have a pig nose when you drink from them — you name it. 比如说：人类仓鼠轮、跳舞穴居人的卡通画、培根形状的耳环还有咖啡杯，喝咖啡的时候，这个杯子会让你看起来像带了个猪鼻子——但凡你能说出来的东西购物网站上都找的到。 Search “scorpions”, and up pop pages selling scorpions for pets, scorpions for snacks and albums by the German metal band, Scorpions. 搜索“蝎子”，就会弹出售卖蝎子宠物、蝎子小吃还有德国金属乐队“蝎子”专辑的网页。 My economist friend recently purchased a money gun from Taobao. That is, a gun that blasts bills when you pull the trigger. 我有个经济学家朋友最近从淘宝购买了一把“喷钱枪”。扣动扳机时，这种枪会弹出钞票。 We joked this may soon prove one of few uses for physical banknotes in China’s increasingly cashless and e-commerce-driven landscape. 我们开玩笑说，这就是现今中国的一种印证，在电子商务环境的驱动下，中国的现金越来越少，实物钞票的用途也越来越少。