Yunda Express Korea CEO Liang Zhongjin poses inside the company's warehouse in Incheon, June 14. Without being able to speak Korean, the 39-year-old CEO runs the largest cross-border courier business between Korea and the greater China area. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
In an online video, Liang Zhongjin, 39, a small-in-stature man with a plump smiling face stands in a bustling warehouse, animatedly explaining how parcels shipped from Korea can reach their destination in China in just three days.
Behind him, shelves stacked high with packages form an impressive backdrop, each box symbolizing a successful cross-border transaction.
The video, posted on WeChat — a Chinese "app for everything" — a few weeks ago, has already garnered over 210,000 views, 2,500 likes and 1,500 shares, introducing viewers to the largest cross-border courier business from Korea to China started by Liang from humble beginnings over the course of ten years.
If this achievement wasn't enough, Liang has managed to build his busy cross-border business all without being able to speak Korean.
“The inconvenience lies in the low efficiency,” Liang said. “When I am not clear or uncertain about something, then I have to keep asking why.”
However, he turned what could have been a significant hindrance into a strength.
As someone who values friendships deeply, he said that without the emotional bond that can only be established and deepened through speaking the language, working with Koreans is much more focused on business aspects.
“This does create some obstacles in developing customer relationships, but the advantage is that I could focus purely on logic and the principles of doing business. So, my survival and success here, while many competitors have been wiped out, are partly due to my undistracted logical thinking.”
He said he does want to learn Korean, but a more crucial task has been constantly thinking, learning, and adapting to the ever-changing business landscape of China-South Korea trade, especially as his competitors show no signs of abating.
Liang's successes were cemented by riding the wave of the Korean proxy shopping surge throughout the 2010s, spurred by the escalating demand, among Chinese consumers, for Korean products up until recent years. His subsequent enterprise also cashed in on the explosion in Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Temu and AliExpress in South Korea, catalyzed by the growing popularity and easier access to affordable and good quality Chinese merchandise.
As Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms flourished in South Korea, China's shipments to its neighbor soared, while companies solely focused on delivery services from South Korea to China struggled to survive as Chinese customers' appitite for Korean products began to fade, Liang recalled. Before the pandemic in 2019, he used to send more than 30,000 packages from Seoul to Shandong Province, but now it has been slashed by two-thirds to about 10,000 a day.
"The current sea freight from China to South Korea is about twice as much as from South Korea to China,” Liang said. “Containers bound for South Korea are mostly fully loaded, while many return empty.” The number of containers from China also tripled in the past 7 years, he added.
In 2023, South Korea's exports to China plummeted by nearly 20 percent from the year prior, to 19.7 percent of total exports, or $124.8 billion, below 20 percent for the first time in 20 years, according to official statistics.
Korean imports from China dropped nearly 8 percent year-on-year to $142.8 billion.
This contributed to an $18 billion trade deficit with China, Korea's first trade deficit with its neighbor to its west in over 31 years.
Against the changing landscape, Liang had to diversify in order to survive and grow.
In addition to consolidating logistics services for both directions, Liang diversified his business by launching a luggage transport service to meet the needs of Chinese students and workers in Korea, a market previously dominated by the postal service. When competitors began to imitate his idea, he pivoted to setting up overseas warehouses, and subsequently identified passport delivery as a new opportunity.
Amid the automation trend, Yunda Express also invested six million Chinese yuan (1.14 billion Korean won) to build a smart warehouse in Incheon with automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to streamline operations and cut human labour costs by nearly a third.
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are stationed at the warehouse of Yunda Express Korea in Incheon, June 14. The company invested 6 million Chinese yuan (1.14 billion Korean won) to build a smart warehouse in Incheon with AGVs to streamline operations and cut human labor costs by nearly a third. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
His business acumen and entrepreneurial talent became evident during his university years.
Liang was born and raised at the foot of Mount Tai in Shandong Province, where business ties and people exchanges with Korea date back centuries, owing to their geographical proximity.
His family, not particularly affluent, made him realize the importance of having a strong work ethic and self-reliance. During his college years at Qingdao University of Technology, where he studied architecture, Liang discovered his true passion lay elsewhere. While at university, he embarked on his first entrepreneurial ventures by selling mobile phone cards and train tickets to fellow students, starting small supermarkets in dormitories and offering food delivery services.
These small businesses ignited his interest and laid the foundation for his future endeavors. After graduation, he worked for a logistics company specializing in trade between China and Korea. This job provided him with insights and experience in the logistics sector that led to his bold step in 2013, when he started his own logistics company.
He initially operated from Qingdao but quickly realized the need to establish a presence in South Korea to optimize operations, and in 2014, he opened the first Seoul office for Yunda Express, one of the largest logistic companies in China.
The early days were full of obstacles as Liang had to navigate the complexities of the Korean market without local resources and was not able to speak the language. He spent the first few years trying to understand local regulations and customs procedures, while securing warehouses and recruiting talent.
“When we first arrived in Korea, we were completely at a loss — we couldn't contact airlines directly or find agents, and struggled to figure out how to load the aircraft, how to clear customs in Korea, and how to export the goods,” Liang said.
“In China, we knew how to ship goods and book cargo space, but in South Korea, We were outsiders, unfamiliar with the industry and without any contacts initially.”
It took Liang and his team a long time to solve these issues, constantly seeking out various connections and resources to figure out how to handle their bookings and loading for themselves.
“We knew that only by reaching the end point directly could we optimize our entire supply chain and minimize costs, and the initial optimization process alone took us over a year.”
Despite these challenges, Liang's business thrived. Now he runs the largest cross-border courier business from Korea to the greater China area, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, and also one of the largest delivery services from China to South Korea.
In addition, he has set up offices in Japan and Malaysia and is exploring delivery routes from South Korea to destinations around the globe.
Yunda Express Korea CEO Liang Zhongjin poses inside the company's warehouse in Incheon, June 14. Liang expects China to remain the world's primary manufacturing hub, and its status as "the world's factory" is not easily challenged by the low-cost labor force in Southeast Asia. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
His primary focus for the future lies in the overseas warehouse business, where he sees immense potential, as the presence of Chinese products will continue to expand in consumer markets worldwide.
China is expected to continue as the primary manufacturing hub, and its status as "the world's factory" is not easily challenged by the low-cost labor force in Southeast Asia, he said.
“The manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia differs from that in China. Many companies invest in Southeast Asia due to its cheaper labor, but with the advent of Industry 4.0, much of the production no longer relies on human labor,” Liang said.
“Nowadays, numerous manufacturing enterprises have become fully automated, eliminating the need for human workers. This shift signifies a departure from traditional labor-intensive practices. China boasts a comprehensive industrial chain, particularly with the rapid modernization and automation of factories, leading to a decreased demand for labor.”
Chinese businesses and e-commerce platforms continue to go global amid escalating domestic competition and sluggish demand growth, Liang added.
For younger entrepreneurs, the seasoned businessman offered a few words of advice.
“The first is picking the right industry by closely watching major national policies, and the second is to stick to it,” he said, stressing adapting to changes and innovation, as well as seeking conversations with successful predecessors in the industry.
Automated guided vehicles move around the warehouse of Yunda Express Korea in Incheon, June 14. In addition to his logistic businesses in South Korea, Liang has set up offices in Japan and Malaysia and is exploring delivery routes from South Korea to destinations around the globe. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Looking ahead, Liang is optimistic about the prospects for China-Korea trade, especially seeing more frequent visits from Chinese local government officials to Korea after news broke about the China-Japan-Korea trilateral summit that was held at the end of May.
Over the years, he takes pride in having trained many talented figures in the industry, even though many have since moved on to other companies.
“Many of the executives I initially trained have become leaders in the China-Korea trade sector. Many business owners in this industry today were once my employees. I feel that I've contributed significantly to developing talent for the China-Korea trade industry.”
Luna Sun is an economy reporter with the South China Morning Post. She is currently based in Seoul, reporting for both The Korea Times and the South China Morning Post via an exchange program.