The photo published on September 9, 2009, shows an elderly peasant using a mobile phone in north China's Shanxi Province. [daynews.com.cn]

Fifty years ago, people delivered oral messages back home with the help of acquaintances.

Forty years ago, writing letters was the most popular form of communication in China.

Thirty years ago, telegram and telephone became methods of daily communication.

Twenty years ago, private telephones and beep pagers were gradually introduced to more Chinese citizens.

Ten years ago, mobile phones began changing the way people communicate.

Nowadays, even in the remotest areas of China, email and instant messaging via internet and mobiles are commonly used.

Within 60 years, communication, an important part of daily life, has seen fundamental changes in China.

Seventy-five-year-old Yan You, who worked in the postal bureau in north China's Shanxi Province, recalled that in the 1950s, telegrams were available but rarely used by common people. At 3.5 cents per Chinese character, compared to only 8 cents for a letter's postage, the cost of telegrams was so high that they were reserved for important events only, such as a wedding or death of a loved one.

When sending a telegram instead of a letter, it was always a tough task to reduce expense by using the fewest possible words to send a complete and clear message.

Until two decades ago, writing a telegram draft with limited Chinese characters was still a common task on school examinations at many levels that gave many pupils a headache. They would surely envy students of today to know that this kind of question has been phased out.

As for the telephone, they were very rare in China before 1978 - in 1952, every 10,000 people could enjoy for one telephone on average in Shanxi. In 1978, every 1,000 people had 5.7 telephones on average in that province.