【原文】摘錄自5月7日香港《文匯報》：自1880年李鴻章在天津設立電報總局，電報在中國走過145年。在上世紀五十年代至八十年代，電報是老百姓與外界溝通最重要的通信手段。鼎盛時期，杭州報房300名員工須晝夜不停向國內外發送電報。北京電報大樓日處理10萬封電報，新聞、氣象、病危通知、升學喜訊……以「嘀」與「嗒」的組合飛速傳向遠方。
今年3月19日，中國電信杭州分公司發布電報業務退市公告，稱該公司現有電報網設備已超設計使用年限，無法正常收發電報，相關業務將於5月1日正式退出市場。據《杭州日報》報道，最後一個電報營業日，杭州共收報5,846封，與上世紀八十年代鼎盛時期的發報量相當。
在杭州停止電報業務後，全國僅餘北京一城仍保留有電報收發業務，此外，石家莊、濟南和廣州三城保留電報收報業務。這構成了曾在上世紀形成的密集的電報網絡系統，成為碩果僅存的「化石」切片。
手寫完7封電報，28歲的王先生在北京聯通西單營業廳的電報窗口前，一邊認真檢查地址和內容，一邊跟工作人員詢問身在杭州的親友何時能收到電報，發完後還不忘一一拍照留念。他在得知北京將成為唯一可發電報的城市後，自己便提前整理好了收件人地址，精心編輯了電報內容，還深入學習了電報的歷史，了解舊時人們的聯絡方式，「我沒經歷過那個時代，但不知道為什麼，每當想起心裏總是莫名地酸楚。」
來自山東的賈同學專門騎車9公里從學校趕往電報窗口，卻被告知無法向老家的朋友發報。吃到「閉門羹」後的他並沒有氣餒，而是琢磨出一條「曲線救國」的方法。他選擇先將電報寄給自己，然後再通過快遞的方式將電報寄走。「雖然麻煩點，但總是有辦法的，這封電報很有紀念意義，所以想盡辦法也要送到朋友手中。」
「是在這裏發電報嗎？」「請問發電報的流程是什麼？」前來詢問的市民絡繹不絕，有時甚至需要排隊等候。工作人員耐心地遞送電報單，詳細講解填寫規範與收費標準。每個漢字收費 0.14 元（人民幣，下同），數字、標點等字符每 5個同樣收費0.14元，收報者的姓名、地址、聯繫方式也算作字數標準計費。
電報窗口工作人員向香港文匯報記者展示了厚厚的一沓電報單，並直言，目前一天最多能有200份電報需要發送，這種情況在她的工作經歷中也堪稱「前無古人，後也難有來者」了。該工作人員表示，過往每月電報數量屈指可數，面對突然激增的發報需求，相關投遞工作可能會有所延長，「至少需要15天左右吧。」
北京聯通西單營業廳一位有着12年工作經驗的營業員表示，對顧客而言，發送電報的程序數十年未有任何變化，但就技術與流程而言，現時的電報業務已非當年模樣。
在上世紀八十年代，一封標準的電報，一般是發電人在郵局的電報業務窗口領取一份電文紙，將需要發送的電文擬寫出來，並附收報人的姓名、地址等聯繫方式。電報業務員會將相關電文根據通行標準電碼編譯為對應的數字或字母交由後方發報員。發報員則根據相關數字和字母，將電文以摩斯碼方式發送出去。收報方則逆轉上述程序，將電文譯為文字，再通過投遞方式將報文投遞給收件人。
現時的電報業務員在接收到用戶的電文後，不再根據內容將電文編譯為對應的數字或字母通過摩斯碼的方式向外發送，而是將相關電文傳送至報房封裝，再通過郵政或順豐的快遞業務，將電報發送給收件者。「過去的電報師傅個個身懷絕技，優秀的發報員能熟記數千字電碼，但現在發送電報已經不再需要這些技能了。」該營業員說。
Telegraph Services Fade Into History, Survive in Just Four Cities
【譯文】Since Li Hongzhang set up the General Telegraph Office in Tianjin in 1880, the telegraph has been in China for 145 years. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the telegraph was the most critical communication between people and the outside world. In its heyday, the 300 employees of the Hangzhou telegraph office were required to send telegrams around the clock to domestic and foreign countries. The Beijing Telegraph Building handles 100,000 telegrams daily, with news, weather, notices of illnesses, and good news about graduation, being transmitted rapidly to distant places in a combination of "ticks" and "clacks".
On March 19th of this year, China Telecom Company Limited Hangzhou Branch released a telegraph business exit announcement, saying that the company's existing telegraph network equipment has exceeded the design life, unable to send and receive telegrams, the relevant business will be officially withdrawn from the market on May 1st. According to the Hangzhou Daily, during the final day of telegraph operations, Hangzhou received 5,846 telegrams, equivalent to the amount in the 1980s.
After Hangzhou ceased telegraph operations, only one city in the country, Beijing, retained telegraph transmission, collection and distribution, while three other cities, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Guangzhou, retained telegraph collection and distribution. This constitutes the only surviving "fossilized" slice of the dense telegraph network that was once in place in the last century.
After handwriting seven telegrams, Mr. Wang, aged 28, checked the addresses and contents of the telegrams at the telegram window of Beijing Unicom's Xidan office while asking staff when his friends and relatives in Hangzhou would receive the telegrams, took photos of them and sent them. After learning that Beijing would be the only city that could send telegrams, he organized the recipient's address in advance, carefully edited the content of the telegram, and also studied the history of telegrams to understand how people contacted each other in the old days, "I did not go through that era, I don't know why but whenever I think of it, my heart is always inexplicably sad."
Jia, a student from Shandong, rode his bike 9 kilometers from his school to the telegraph window specifically to send a telegram, only to be told he couldn't transmit it to his friend in his hometown. Undeterred by this rejection, he devised an "indirect approach" to solve the problem. He chose to first send the telegram to himself and then forward it via express delivery. "It's a bit more hassle, but there's always a way. This telegram holds special commemorative meaning, so I'll do whatever it takes to get it to my friend," he said.
"Do you send telegrams here?" "What is the procedure for sending telegrams?" The number of people who came to ask questions was so high that sometimes they even had to wait in line. The staff patiently delivered the telegraph bill, explaining the specifications for filling out and charging standards. Each Chinese character charges 0.14 yuan (RMB, the same below); for numbers, punctuation and other characters, every five characters also charges 0.14 yuan; the recipient's name, address, and contact information are also counted as part of the standard billing.
A staff member at the telegraph window showed reporter a thick stack of telegram forms and remarked frankly: "Currently, we handle up to 200 telegrams per day at most. This situation is unprecedented in my career and likely won't be surpassed in the future." The staff member explained that previously, the monthly volume of telegrams was negligible. Faced with the sudden surge in telegram requests, the delivery process might be extended: "It will take at least 15 days or so."
A staff with 12 years of experience at Beijing Unicom's Xidan office said that the process of sending telegrams to customers has not changed for decades. However, regarding technology and process, the telegraph business is not what it used to be.
In the 1980s, a standard telegram usually involved the sender picking up a piece of paper at the telegraph window of the post office, drafting the message to be sent, and attaching the recipient's name, address and other contact details. The telegraph operator will compile the message into corresponding numbers or letters according to the prevailing standard code and pass it to the back-end transmitter. The back-end transmitter then sends the message in Morse code based on the corresponding numbers and letters. The recipient of the telegram then reverses the above procedure, translates the message into text, and then delivers the telegram to the recipient using delivery.
"Today's telegraph operators no longer convert customers' messages into corresponding numbers or letters using Morse code for transmission. Instead, they send the text to the telegraph office for packaging, after which the telegrams are delivered to recipients via postal or SF Express courier services," explained the clerk. "In the past, telegraph masters possessed exceptional skills—skilled operators could memorize thousands of code characters. But these abilities are no longer needed for sending telegrams now."
●琬琰
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