Proper Phone Ettiquite in China

When answering the telephone in China, you must scream, "WEI!!!" into the phone. Why, no one knows. The word doesn't mean anything, it is just what you do. The person on the other end will also scream, "WEI!!!!" and then you can proceed to have your conversation in normal tones. Unless, of course, you are talking to someone in another town, in which case, you will need to speak at roughly the same volume that you screamed, "WEI!!!" since they are far away and won't hear you otherwise.