This Day, That Year

Item from March 10, 1993, in China Daily: A woman tries her new magnetized phone card at a cardphone booth in Changsha, capital of Hunan province. To date, Changsha has installed 108 special card telephones and 100,000 people own such cards.

Smartphones have become an integral part of many people's lives. Beyond the basic phone call, messages in their various digital forms, including SMS, e-mail, WeChat dialogues and micro blogs, can all be accessed with smartphones almost any time, any place.

The popular devices also allow uses to surf the Internet, shoot high-quality images and run third-party applications at increasingly affordable prices, making cardphone booths a rare sight in cities.