People used to visit one another or make a phone call to send a greeting for the Spring Festival, Chinese lunar New Year. However, this year, a greeting through SMS (Short Message Service) has become a vogue.

By statistics of Jiangsu Mobile, the Spring Festival greetings through SMS reached 44.6 million on the Eve. From January 31 through the morning of February 7, the messages sent through Jiangsu Mobile were as many as 200 million pieces, while the amount nation-wide exceeded 5 billion.

A random survey was conducted on streets by the Yangtze Evening News. People interviewed said greetings through SMS were convenient and inexpensive. People might be reluctant to pay a personal visit due to an increased consideration of space and privacy on the other side. What's more, some words might be easier written than spoken. Thus, SMS gained much room to develop for holiday greetings through mobile phones.

Miss Lu usually delivered New Year Greetings to her boss and colleagues by phone calls, she said. However, due to a tremendous telephone volume midnight on the New Year Eve, the line was very busy. Even if you were able to get through, people on the other side might have gone to bed. Some people even silence the ring in case of a "phone bombarding." With SMS, people could send their messages without disturbing other's sleep, or a festival dinner.

It is reported that China Mobile opened the international SMS before the Spring Festival. It makes an international communication between family members convenient and cheaper. A subsidiary form for New Year greetings in the past, SMS has gained a new horizon for holiday greetings, thanks to the mobile phone popularization.

Ms. Peng Yang from Nanjing Institute of Post and Telecommunications said she spent most of her time on making greeting cards for her students already graduated or yet to be. Currently, greeting cards available at a post office or E-cards on websites are not customer-tailored, hard to show a personality. She is now working on campus greeting-card ideas for students to adopt for novelty. She said celebrating the New Year online reflected the idea of advancing with the times, a happy surprise and a holiday greeting in one.

(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, February 9, 2003)