The map is old, the card is recent, and mailed from Taiwan (not PR China!) in 2012 with two stamps and trilingual Air Mail sticker affixed.  Grade: 2

This 4-1/2″ x 6-7/8″ card was mailed in 2012 with stamp, postmark, and a beautifully written (and extensive) message in Chinese–and we don’t know where this Music Hall is.  We do know that the ceiba trees are usually found in tropical areas–which China isn’t usually famous for.  Grade: 2

This ceremony marking the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China took place in China, with Hong Kong as the main subject of the activities.  There were plenty of red banners to wave, and they appear on this unused card.  Grade: 1

Again, in China, with large China flag and many small Hong Kong ones, befitting.  Unused card.  Grade: 1

Two mint-condition items in one cardboard sleeve.  One is an ornate book of commemorative furniture stamp sheets with substantial descriptions of different styles of Chinese chairs.  The other book is larger (4-1/2″ x 8-1/4″) with a page of three se-tenant sets of two mint stamps each (all chairs), followed by 12 more pages of unstamped postcards, with stubs, showing classical Chinese scenes.  Our immediate impression when seeing something like this is:  wow, someone had to think of it, and execute it.  If you are a furniture maker, really, you should have this.    Grade: 1

See 20307408A.

This is a softcover book, measuring 8″ x 8-3/8″, with a removable yellow sleeve (cover, and sleeve, pictured separately).  The title of this book, Flags, is accurate but misleading because the flag on each card is always the same–China’s national flag–and appears on the end stub of the card.  Here is how the book is organised:

Open to the inside front cover, and facing page, of much Chinese text and what is (to us) a mysterious diagram that looks a lot like a musical score, but with numbers and words instead of notes.  The next leaf is a type of semi-transparent onion-skin page divider with Chinese text and some graphics.  The next leaf consists of two se-tenant postal cards with pre-printed postage (not maximum cards):  one is a scene of Yida Huizhi and the other of Jinggangshan.  The book has 19 leaves altogether, including the dividers; the cards range from sepia to full color.  Cards have Pinyin titles but no English, and altogether there are 18 cards, two to a page.  Unused, of course.    Grade: 1

Unused lottery card with pre-printed postage, issued by China Post.  Upper edge is perforated.  Grade: 1

Unused lottery card with pre-printed postage, issued by China Post.  Upper edge is perforated.  Grade: 1

Very nice card issued by China’s State Postal Bureau.  The pre-printed (Beijing 2008 Olympics) postage of this Olympics arena has been supplemented by an additional, real Olympics stamp.  So this card is 2008 Olympics all the way, mailed in 2012 however.  Grade: 1

Mailed in 2012 with two different stamps and Beijing postmark, this card is one of 12 views of Suzhou–which is closer to Shanghai.  Red bilingual “By Air” chop also appears on the reverse.  Lower and upper edges are perforated, so this had been part of a link.  Grade: 1

Honest, we don’t know whether the (unused) card was printed in this colour or just became this way.  The various Chinese and English captions on the back are in a similar light brown.  Odd, and therefore hard to grade.  But if it is what it is, we assign Grade: 2

The basic description of this is similar to that for #20307459 except that this volume is dedicated to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a patriotic united front organization.  All this is explained inside the book.  The stamps and card are not quite the same, but this is clearly a companion piece to #20307459.   Grade: 1

The water sports stadium built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics on a card mailed from Beijing in 2012 with stamp, full postmark, and red “Par Avion” chops.  Captioned in seven languages, this is about as good an example of contemporary Chinese postcards as you can find.  Grade: 1

Another specialty set from the Guangdong office of China Post, issued in 2012.  Together with entries 20307468B and C, we describe it here.  The entire item is encased in a cardboard cover (8-1/2″ x 11-1/4″ x 1/2″) as you see in 20307468A (The other side of the cover looks similar but without the cut-out window.)  Including the inside front and back covers, the book itself has 12 page facings of which some are mint stamps, some are postcards, and some are envelopes–stamped in “Maximum Card” style, but without postmarks (see 20307468B and C).  Interior text is all in Chinese, and each individual page is exceptionally rigid and sturdy.  Note the elaborate decorations.   Grade: 1