Those "strategies" we Chinese used in hanging up a call

How do Chinese people say goodbye on the phone?

You might think it’s very simple and that there are many ways, such as, “拜拜” (báibái, bye-bye), “再见” (zàijiàn, goodbye), some people may know“我挂了” (wǒ guàle, I'm going to hang up.) or “以后聊” (yǐhòu liáo, I’ll talk to you later).

In fact,there are some formalities and etiquette to observe when hanging up:

-Don't hang up the phone heavily if you using a landline!
-固定电话要轻轻挂！
-gùdìng diànhuà yào qīngqīng guà!

-Don't hang up the phone first when speaking to the elder!
-跟长者或者尊者打电话时不要先挂！
-gēn zhǎngzhě huòzhě zūnzhě dǎdiànhuàshí bùyào xiānguà!

-Don't hang up the phone first if you are a man and speaking to a woman!
-男人在跟女人通电话时不要先挂！
-nánrén gēn nǚrén tōngdiànhuàshí búyào xiānguà!





Many Chinese people don’t know how to end conversations on the phone. A young boy, Kevin, vents (吐槽 tù cáo) his frustrations on Weibo: “Has anyone else had this experience? You have made a call to an older member of your family. After the main conversation is over, deep down both of you are hoping to end the talk. However, in order to ensure you’re being polite, your relative might say 好 (good, okay)，好，好，好，a multitude of times, and you in turn have to respond to this by saying oh, oh, oh, oh.If we keep on talking, it seems very meaningless. This drives me mad! (抓狂 zhuā kuáng) .

Netizens often discuss the problem and muse over some methods to deal with these situations. They call them their “strategies” (攻略 gōnglüè).
If you want to hang up the phone first, it is best to have a good reason, instead of directly saying, “Wǒ yào guà （diànhuà ）le。我要挂（电话）了。I want to hang up.”
For example,

“shífēnzhōnghòu wǒ yào kāihuìle.十分钟后我要开会了。I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes”,

“wǒ yào hépéngyou chīfàn le. 我要和朋友吃饭了。I'm going to have dinner with my friends”,

“duìbuqǐ,wǒde shǒujī yàoméidiànle. 对不起，我的手机要没电了。Sorry, my mobile phone is running out of power”,

“wǒ děi jiēge diànhuà. 我得接个电话。I have a call waiting, I have to answer it”

or “duìbuqǐ, xìnhào bùtàihǎo.yíhuìr dǎgěinǐ. 对不起，信号不太好，我一会儿打给你。Sorry, the signal is really bad, I will call you later (“later” means “a long time later” or maybe “never again”).