Name: That's How Your Package Gets to Your Door Overnight
Uploaded: 2020-03-18T23:01:44.000Z
Duration: 8 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Ever since I was a young, flat sheet of cardboard, I've dreamed of being filled with something

important—like a birthday present! —and then going to the ultimate Package Party in

Noah’s grandfather in Scotland just ordered a stuffed Panda from Li (this is her workshop).

Grand Pa Melville waited until the last minute, but that’s Ok.

In fact, it’s great, because now I get to go express!

That means I’ll be at Noah’s house in Indiana tomorrow—for his birthday!

While Li sews the last buttons on Panda’s vest, her assistant, Zhang, bends my flaps

into place and seals my edges with packing tape!

I was hoping to get some of that bubble wrap and a few fragile stickers, but toy pandas

Zhang stuffs me with tissue paper and prints a shipping label on the store computer.

Then, Li finishes Panda and nestles him inside of me.

Zhang seals me tight— -affixes my new shipping labels —

Li’s regular pick-up happened an hour ago!

How will I get to Noah’s in time for his birthday?

Lots of businesses, like Li’s, have a scheduled pick up every day, when a truck stops by to

But Grandpa ordered Panda after Li’s pick-up had already happened!

I don’t want to miss cake and balloons; can I make it to Noah’s on time?

Li’s workshop is in Beijing, where the buses are pretty reliable.

Li tells Zhang to leave work early — just be sure to drop me at the nearest Shipping

Storefront within the next hour and we’ll make the deadline!

(It’s called shipping because, before trucks, trains, and airplanes, packages traveled by

Back then, “A Slow Boat to China” took forever but we’ll be at Noah’s tomorrow!)

At the Shipping Storefront, Li’s assistant hands me over the counter to a clerk who scans

It’s OK if Zhang loses it; my label is “in the system.”

Now, both Li, Grandpa, and even Noah’s mom can track my progress on their home or office

computers, because I’ll be scanned every step of the way.

(Tracking doesn’t hurt—I don’t even feel it!)

The guy behind the counter yells over his shoulder for the truck outside to wait and

OK, now I’m glad I’m not marked fragile!

— Okay -- the guy loading on the loading dock out back catches me.

There, the driver scans me again—ooh I like that—and loads me into the van.

Before I know it, I’m at the airport and being—yep, scanned again and—loaded into

a huge metal container called a Unit Load Device.

Together we make a “load” and this device – sometimes called a “can” or a “pod”–resembles

a giant version of me, a box, only full of shelves and usually made of metal.

Many ULD’s, like mine, have one side curved to fit the shape of a plane, because cargo

planes make it their business to use every available inch (or centimeter if that’s

how you roll) and the curved shape means there are no wasted, empty, corners.

ULD’s come in all sizes too, but a typical one is about 88 x 125 x 96 inches.

A crew loads my ULD onto a plane an we’re off to Alaska!

The Package Party happens in Memphis, and Noah lives in Indiana.

My ULD hugs me and explains that it’s OK.

Looking at a map, and seeing all that ice and tundra, a box might think Alaska is in

If you look at a globe, you’ll see that Alaska is really in the middle of Asia and

the United States—two places that do a lot of shipping!

And, while Alaska has a relatively small population—about 740,000—the hub there is huge!

“Hub” means center of activity, and even though it’s dark outside—

Alaska’s Cargo Hub is the fifth largest cargo airport in the world and the second

(After Memphis—where we’re going to the Package Party!)

Countless packages get sorted in Alaska, but our plane is just stopping for gas.

Lots of planes can fly straight from Beijing to Memphis, but that takes a lot of gas.

Space that could be filled with bears in boxes.

So, cargo planes often load up with extra bears, then land in Alaska to refill their

And we are off to the Package Party in Memphis!

Referred to as “The Big Sort,” the Package Party is a lot like a birthday party.

Just like at a party, we all arrive at the same time.

My plane, and planes from all over the world, set down in Memphis between 10PM to 1AM.

Then, while the world sleeps, we have our party!