Octogenarian spends 11 hours a day manning two landlines in busy tourist area of Shanghai, says the job staves off loneliness
2-MIN READ2-MINFran Luin BeijingPublished: 9:00am, 24 Apr 2026A Shanghai grandmother has been nicknamed the “telephone booth princess” for persisting in her post as a public phone booth manager for 33 years.
Shen Yuxiu, who is in her 80s, manages the city’s last staffed booth.
She looks after two very old landline phones. Everyday she arrives at 9am and stays until 8pm.
Despite the fact that the booth is located on Fuzhou Road, which connects Shanghai’s two hottest tourist spots, The Bund and People’s Square, Shen said that she only earns two yuan (3 US cents) a week.
Phone calls inside Shanghai are charged at 0.4 yuan per three minutes, and calls made to other provinces are charged 0.2 yuan per minute. Shen said people can also dial abroad from the phones.
