|
Rather than conveying greetings via telephone as she had done in the past, Zhanglan, a Shanghai Airlines employee, used her cell phone to send more than twenty text messages to her relatives and friends on the eve of Spring Festival.
On the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year Saturday, Zhangtao, a citizen of northwestern Xi'an city, received more than 30 New Year's greetings in the form of text messages, and sent about 50 himself.
Millions of text messages conveying New Year's greetings flew through the air from one cell phone to another throughout China on the eve of the Spring Festival. In fact, they nearly paralyzed mobile phone grids in some areas.
Traditional Chinese culture dictates that people visit their distant relatives and friends during the Spring Festival, but that tradition is gradually giving way to phone calls, and more recently, to greetings via text messages. Many young urbanites conveyed their greetings in this manner.
By punching a few digits on the phone, a process which takes only a few minutes and costs just 0.1 yuan (1.2 US cents) per message, people have found that they can save not only time but also money, especially in the case of long-distance greetings.
By the end of last month, the number of mobile phone users was estimated at 210 million, compared to 149.9 million a year ago.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2003)
|
