It is the anthem of modern China, the shrill cry heard in parks and hair salons and taxis and cycle lanes. I once saw three businessmen shout it at a restaurant table as they clasped hand-held instruments to their ears. I heard it called out by a coal vendor as he guided his laden pedi-cart with one hand through the bustling Beijing traffic.
It is the sound of Chinese people answering their mobile telephones, the rising, expectant cry of "Wei!", the Chinese equivalent of "Yes, hello!"
The number of mobile telephone subscribers in this still developing country has shot up to 30 million this year from zero in 1987, ranking China third in the world, and it is now rising at an even faster rate. By the end of this year it will have reached 46 million.
Here are some more telecommunications statistics. In the first quarter of 1999 the number of telephone subscribers of all types in China jumped by 18 million to 125 million and it is expected to double in the first year of the new century. This makes telecommunications in China very big business, taking in the equivalent of £9 billion from January to March this year alone. The surge in telecommunications has opened a dynamic new chapter in China's 20-year reform drive. It coincides with the outcome of a power struggle in the Chinese government in the spring which resulted in a defeat for the country's vast state telecommunications monopoly known as China Telecom, which until recently controlled all fixed telephones, mobile phones and the Internet. This is good news for telephone users in China who have had to put up with delays and outrageous costs and billing methods. Up to recently installing a telephone cost £275 and international calls were charged at £2.50 a minute. On top of that if a customer dialled a number abroad and it didn't answer, a charge was still imposed.
The example of the US has inspired change in China. In the US, AT&T is taking on local telephone monopolies by offering telephone services on cable-TV systems, and in America and other countries the Internet is also being used to compete with the telephone service.
China already has a huge cable-TV network of 756 stations reaching up to 100 million subscribers, much of it installed under the supervision of Mr Fang Hongyi, a 45-year-old engineer. Mr Fang saw what was happening elsewhere and began to campaign for more competition in China's telecommunications, and specifically to exploit the cable services for telephone use.
He began a lobbying campaign in the Chinese media and opened up a debate on China Telecom's hegemony. Free-wheeling discussion on economic issues is allowed in communist China as long as the government itself is not challenged.
The cable engineer came up against a roadblock in the shape of the head of China's posts and telecommunications ministry, Mr Wu Jichuan, a powerful bureaucrat who had made his monopoly a highly-profitable arm of government with fixed assets worth £60 billion and half a million employees. Mr Wu had ensured that attempts to set up rival state companies, such as China Unicom in 1994, came to little by denying access to the fixed telephone sector and keeping 95 per cent of the mobile market. But Mr Zhu Rongji, the Premier and top monopoly-buster in the Chinese leadership, sensed the popular mood and saw that taking on China Telecom could help combat the slowdown in China's reform programme. Mr Zhu ordered the posts and telecommunications minister to prepare a plan for restructuring his fiefdom. Four times Mr Wu made half-hearted submissions for restructuring, which Mr Zhu threw back, according to the Asia Wall Street Journal. Then on February 11th the Premier lost patience and ordered China Telecom broken up into four companies to deal with mobile phones, fixed-line telephones, wireless paging and satellite communications.
Things have moved fast since then. China Unicom launched Internet telephone services in 12 cities last week as the race to secure part of the new market segment hotted up. Three telecommunications companies have been authorised to operate in 25 cities, and joint ventures with foreign companies have been encouraged, allowing AT&T, for example, to gain a foothold in Shanghai's new financial district.
China is also being wired up through its 320 million existing television sets. Microsoft has developed Chinese-language software, called Venus, which can be installed in set-top boxes or video compact disc players to allow viewers to access the Internet and do simple word processing.
The opportunities for small companies from countries like Ireland and Israel, which service information technology, are expanding rapidly. If and when China joins the World Trade Organisation, private telecommunications companies will be permitted and foreign enterprises will be allowed to take equity stakes.
The consumer is benefiting already from all this. China Telecom cut international rates and Internet service charges by half in March and the charge for installing a home telephone has been reduced by two-thirds. Meanwhile, China's mobile telephone market is still a long way from saturated, with less than 3 per cent of the population subscribing. If supply ever meets demand, the cry of "Wei!" will surely be China's calling card of the future.