Wang Hongwei was born in 1947. Since 1967, she started to work as a telephone operator – a position that is quickly fading away. At that time, the communications industry in China was just starting from scratch, when there was only one public telephone for all residents to share in a community. But by the time of her retirement in 2002, Wang had witnessed the popularization of landline telephones and cellular phones across the country. 

"For nearly 3,000 years, Chinese people have communicated by writing letters. The history of the telephone was less than 150 years. Wireless communication is even newer. In less than three decades, we've developed from 1G to 4G. The technology rocketed," she said.