A simple phonecall?

I thought it would be a good idea to phone the people I'd be working for this summer, since my trip is only two weeks away. Consulting the Johnson City Phone Directory, I learned that in addition to the local number, I'd need to dial the long distance code, the country code, and the city code. The long distance and country codes were no problem. But how do you find the code for Nanning China when you live in Johnson City? So I dialed the operator. Now as we all know, the human phone operator is obsolescent. She has been replaced by a series of recordings which direct you to press different numbers. Took me about ten minutes to locate an operator from the genus homo sapiens who could answer could answer my question. She was really polite. But is all this automation progress?