Feature: Video chats bring service people closer to home

Jiang Qichang, born in a village in Shandong Province, did not even know what a telephone looked like before he enlisted in the military 26 years ago.

Communication with home was done by letter which could take days, or even weeks, to arrive.

Ten years ago talking to his father meant waiting in line for at least two hours to use the barracks' public telephone.

A few years ago he managed to equip himself and his father with mobile phones and last year the military finally allowed use of smartphones and the mobile Internet in barracks, and video chatting became a possibility.

Though it was always exciting to receive a letter from afar, Jiang marveled at the convenience of smartphones. "It indeed brings unparallel convenience and speed."

The ban on smartphones was born out of a standard military need to maintain security, but was inconvenient for troops and occasionally embarrassing.

When Sergeant Jin Chao, 27, went for a blind date during his vacation last year, before the ban was lifted, his date was shocked when trying to add him as a friend on WeChat and discovering that Jin's mobile phone could only make calls and send text messages. That was the end of a story.

"The barrier between servicemen, the society and their families is gradually vanishing," Qi Yong, political commissar of an artillery regiment, told the People's Liberation Army Daily.

"Mobile devices will bring about more changes in military life in the future," Qi said.

For years soldiers have accessed news through what was nicknamed the "three half-an-hours," namely, half an hour of radio listening in the morning, half an hour of newspaper reading at noon, and half an hour of CCTV nightly news watching in the evening.

"Now we can get the news as it happens through news apps," said Li Zhonghua stationed in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Zhang Wenbin, political commissar of an artillery regiment in Xinjiang, described information from the "three half-an-hours" as a news dinner, while information from smartphones more like fast food: there is plenty of it, but news from the cyberspace can be patchy and may result in "poor health," Zhang said, adding that soldiers are encouraged to use both resources.

"My daughter is seven, I haven't spent a single new year eve with her," said Sergeant Major Cai Zhifei, referring to the lunar new year which means family reunions to most Chinese. "Although I cannot go home this year, we have agreed to count down to the new year together on WeChat." Endi