Chinese has bidden farewell to etiquette telegram services after they were abolished due to lack of customers.

China Telecom Corporation Limited and China Network Communications Corporation jointly decided to stop the public etiquette telegram service and the flower etiquette telegram service starting from Thursday, saying that alternative and advanced ways of communication, such as telephone, mobile phone and internet, have been replacing traditional telegraphy services.

Etiquette telegrams were sent to addressees with cards of greetings, condolences and so on, also with flowers if paid.

"Our customers are decreasing rapidly. We had dozens of customers every month several years ago, now the number has dropped to one digit," said Li Bin, an employee in Hefei Telecom who has been in the telegraphy department for three decades.

"We started the public etiquette telegram service in February, 1988, and that was the golden time of telegraphy. The flower service was introduced in September, 1993," he said.

Only one etiquette telegram of condolences was sent from Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, on Wednesday, becoming the last etiquette telegram of Hefei.

Nowadays, people living in the less developed areas are still communicating by telegrams, while most people have easy access to telephone, mobile phone and internet that outdate telegraphy.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2005)