Beijing’s only public telegraph service center closed its doors on Thursday after 59 years in service, marking the end of a landmark era in communication that reduced distances between far-apart parties, changed how wars were fought and nurtured love despite physical separation.

Built on September 29, 1958, the Beijing Telegraph Building, a 12-story high-rise in west Chang'an Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the Chinese capital, was once the biggest hub of China’s telegraph communication and the largest integrated telecommunication service hall in Asia.

VCG Photo

At its heyday, the center sent out almost three million telegrams every month. A senior resident surnamed Zhang told the Beijing Morning Post that pedestrians walking past the building in the 1980s could hear the tapping on the keys of the telegraph machines inside.

At the time, the center processed messages related to state affairs as well as family issues. One of the popular lines wired out was a short text written with only four Chinese characters asking the receiver to “return home upon reading because mother is sick,” China Newsweek reported.

The statement announcing the closing down of the hall. /VCG Photo 

The fee for one character rose by 0.05 yuan (less than 1 cent) in the past three decades, while incomes in China jumped by tenfold.

Yet, long gone are the days when people mustered enough patience to wait hours, days or weeks for their message to get through, as telecommunications revolution brought ease and speed to people’s conversations, now made possible through a few taps on a handheld screen. 

The telegraph service hall in Beijing Telegraph Building in 1950s. /China Newsweek Photo

The telegraph service hall in Beijing Telegraph Building in 1980s. /China Newsweek Photo

At the dawn of the 21st century, demand dramatically dropped, and the building had to reduce its capacity, reserving one counter and three machines for service.

“Now a few people come here to send a telegram, sometimes a day passes without customers,” a staff member told Beijing Morning Post.

Office inside the Beijing Telegraph Building in 1980s.  /China Newsweek Photo

By 2016, mobile phone users had reached 1.306 billion people or 95.5 percent of the population, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Technology. 

As people turned to handsets to get a hold of one other, they turned away from telegraph services.

Less than 10 telegrams were sent on monthly basis in recent years from the Beijing Telegraph Building.

VCG Photo

VCG Photo

A former employee at the Beijing Telegraph Bureau posted on his account on China’s Twitter-like Weibo saying that he spent 9.5 yuan (around 1.5 US dollars) to send himself a telegram in memory of the old days. The Morse code he used means “I started working at the bureau in 1982, witnessing the great change in the past 35 years. I have no words, sending this telegram as homage.”

Screenshot from the Weibo post written by an employee at the Beijing Telegraph Bureau

Luckily, the telegraph service counter will not disappear and will be moved to a different location, the Beijing Changtudianhua Building, soon.