Handwritten letters could be confined to the history books if current trends continue.

Basic statistics from the Harbin Municipal Post Office show that private handwritten letters accounted for about 1 percent of the last six month's mail.

With the popularity of e-mail and many instant chatting devices over the Internet since the early 1990s, the number of handwritten letters is going down and may be on the verge of extinction, said some experts.

Peng Qijin, a first-year postgraduate student at the Harbin Institute of Technology, could not remember the last time she wrote a letter on paper.

"It's been years since I received or wrote a handwritten letter," said the 24-year-old.

Of Harbin's 10.77 million pieces of mail in the last six months, only about 100,000, or around 1 per cent, were private letters.

Li Ying, who works at the letter sorting department, told China Daily that she comes across far fewer private letters now than she did 10 years ago.

Various commercial letters such as bills for mobile phone users, plus catalogues and official mail between businesses account for the majority of the post, she said.

"Private letters used to account for around 10 percent of the post 10 years ago, but now we hardly see them," Li said.

Peng said she is in regular contact with her friends but in a more modern way. "Of course, fewer people write letters these days. With a computer at home and a mobile phone in pocket, I can contact my friends all the time. So why bother to write a letter by hand, which is slower and more costly?" she said.

Yang Shoubin, who teaches Chinese at Harbin Normal University, said: "A handwritten letter is something to cherish; it shows a person has taken the time to write to you."

(China Daily July 1, 2005)