Former Site of the Suzhou Telegraph and Telephone Office of the Ministry of Communications

Former Site of the Suzhou Telegraph and Telephone Office of the Ministry of Communications

The former site of the Suzhou Telegraph and Telephone Office of the Ministry of Communications is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou City.

The former site of the Suzhou Telegraph and Telephone Office of the Ministry of Communications is located at No. 11-21 Lüqiufang Lane. It features an exterior of blue bricks, with two floors stretching approximately 30 meters from east to west and about 10 meters from north to south. The main hall of the building has four Roman-style columns, above which there is a terrace and railing.

In the 29th year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1903), telephones were first introduced in Suzhou, then called “德律风” (“délǜfēng”), and were privately operated by a man from Hunan named Ma Baihai. The office was initially located inside the Taibo Temple at Xiatai within Changmen. At that time, telephones were a rare novelty. The first batch of telephone subscribers included 99 mid-to-high level government offices such as the Jiangsu Governor’s Office, the Provincial Administration and Judiciary Commissions, the Imperial Textile Bureau, the Suzhou Prefecture Office, and the Chief Police Office, as well as the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce and the Telegraph Office. Among private users, only the Sheng Xuanhuai family at Tiankuqian had a telephone. In 1920, the Ministry of Communications purchased a plot of land on Lüqiufang Lane and built a new office, laying down underground lines and replacing the original magneto telephones with newer common battery models. The central switchboard could accommodate up to eight thousand lines, with the first two thousand installed. In November 1923, the telephone offices at Jinshiheyan and Tiankuqian were closed and relocated together to the new office on Lüqiufang Lane, and the Telegraph Office also moved in. The combined operation continued to be known externally as the “Suzhou Telephone Office.” On November 13, 1934, the Suzhou Telephone Office and the Suzhou Telegraph Office merged their operations and were renamed the “Wuxian Telegraph Office,” though the office remained at Lüqiufang Lane. After the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Telegraph Office and the Telephone Office were merged again and renamed the Suzhou Telecommunications Office of the Ministry of Communications. In May 1949, it was renamed the Suzhou Telecommunications Office. In August 1951, when postal and telecommunications services were unified, the Suzhou Post and Telecommunications Office under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was established. In 1973, postal and telecommunications services were reintegrated, and the three offices were merged and referred to as the Jiangsu Province Suzhou Post and Telecommunications Office, still located on Lüqiufang Lane. In 1980, the Jiangsu Province Suzhou Post and Telecommunications Office was renamed the Suzhou Post and Telecommunications Office. This continued until 1998, when the office implemented a separation of postal and telecommunications services, forming the Suzhou Telecommunications Office and the Suzhou Post Office. From then on, the two offices officially moved out of the lane, leaving behind this rather legendary building.