The toy truck runs on the ice surface of the river. Photo: screenshot of video posted by Pear Video

For all the talk of robots and drones taking over the delivery of packages, a courier in Dandong, Northeast China's Liaoning Province is way ahead of the game. 

He has modified a remote-controlled toy truck so it can carry small packages across a frozen river, delivering products such as medicines to the many elderly residents of a village on the opposite bank.   

The courier, Zhao Junliang, said the local village is surrounded by mountains and hard to get to when the river is frozen, so he had to come up with a solution to deliver the urgently needed packages.

Zhao is seen in a Pear Video on the bank of the river using the remote controller as the truck, which belongs to his son and is decked out with two national flags, slowly crosses the river that's several hundred meters wide. 

On the other side of the river two people are seen waiting for the little truck to trundle across the ice and Zhao talks to them on his phone. "Have you received the box?" Zhao asks. "Yes! The car is amazing. I love this idea," one of the villagers replies.

As Zhao guides the little truck back across the frozen river, he says the remote, open area gives the controller greater range. 

Zhao's idea got compliments on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo. Netizens praised his creativity.

"He has solved a big problem for the isolated village. Good job!" a Sina Weibo user commented.