Beijing has established postal communications with virtually all countries and areas around the world.  Residents in Beijing can reach people in 2,300 cities within China via direct domestic long distance phone calls and reach people in about 260 foreign countries via direct international phone calls. 

By the end of 2002, every 100 Beijing residents owned 51.5 fixed telephone lines city-wide and 74.3 local phone lines in downtown areas.  Mobile phone subscribers in Beijing reached 9.2 million and every 100 Beijing residents owned 80.9 mobile phones.  In addition, new value-added telecommunication services like data communication, multimedia, Internet and mobile phone messages have developed rapidly in 2002.