(Yicai Global) Aug. 15 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com began to sell smartphones with the fifth-generation mobile network technology online at midnight, and a user from Beijing became the first buyer of 5G handsets today. 

Yang Shiqi, a 78-year-old retired bridge engineer, was the first 5G phone buyer at the brick-and-mortar store in Beijing's Suning Plaza, news portal tech.sina reported today. 

The first 5G handset sold was Chinese phone maker ZTE's Axon 10 Pro, which supports the 5G network technology of China's three state-owned telecommunications operators, i.e. China Mobile, China United Network Communications Group and China Telecommunications. The price of ZTE's 5G handset goes as high as CNY4,999 (USD720). 

Some users ordered their phone shortly after the sales started, but Yang took delivery of the first 5G phone sent out from JD.Com's warehouse 10 minutes after his order was logged, the report continued. 

The first phone purchaser also got the 5G experience plan in Suning.Com's experience store from China Telecom, the reported also added.

Yang bought his first cellphone for more than CNY20,000 (about USD2,500 at the then-exchange rate) in the late 1990s. He has thus witnessed the full progression from 2G to 5G.

He began to learn to shoot short videos on his phones, computers and cameras and post them on the TikTok or Youku video sites after retiring. Yang can no longer tote heavy equipment about today as he's getting on and current 4G phones cannot meet his upload and download demands, so he opted to splurge on a 5G handset.

Editor: Ben Armour