The Telegraph Building located on West Chang'an Street in Beijing, used to attract a large number of clients wanting to use its convenient and efficient telegraph service a decade ago.

However, now the telegraph service section is located in a not so convenient position for the very few clients who use it each day.

The Telegraph Building used to send as many as three million telegraphs a month before 1985, constituting half of its business, but the figure has decreased sharply to the present 400 thousand, which is merely three percent of its business volume, sources said.

In contrast with the fast shrinking telegraph service, other telecommunication methods such as the mobile phone, fax, and Internet, have been widely applied and have bright prospects.

With the popularity of the telephone rising annually by one to two percentage points, the number of fixed telephone users has exceeded 100 million in the country.

By the end of 2000, the number of Chinese mobile phone users had surpassed 85 million, and the figure is still growing fast.

China has also witnessed swift growth in use of the Internet, whose users now number some 26 million.

Though the telegraph service is not as competitive as these more modern communication sectors, it is still very useful for the people living in certain western areas with less advanced communication conditions, officials with the Ministry of Information Industry said, adding that the service will not be canceled in the near future.

(21dnn.com 08/02/2001)