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Melody of the Olympic Sports – cover (not postcards)
Please note carefully: these are stamp cards, not postcards. The cover measures about 8-3/4″ x 11-5/8″ and the four cards themselves (see 20307469B) just slightly smaller. The cards represent Basketball, Fencing, Sailing, and Artistic Gymnastics. About half of the reverse of each card (which, you’ll see, are designed as Maximum Cards) is taken up with captions in Chinese and English about the history of this 2006 stamp issue, and of the individual sport. You may also see two small parallel red lines on the top part of the cover. That is the original price sticker with the RMB price deleted. We don’t want to disturb the cover by trying to remove the sticker, but you might. Hard to grade, but to be safe we will call these Grade: 2.
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Ci of the Song Dynasty (set of stamp cards, not postcards)
Note that these are stamp cards, not postcards, and in Maximum Card style. Scan 20307470A shows the cover for six different cards, each measuring about 7-1/4″ x 10-1/4″. The set was issued in 2012 by China National Philatelic Corporation. Each card is fully captioned on the reverse, in Chinese and English, explaining Ci (a kind of classical Chinese poetry during the Song Dynasty 960-1279 A.D.) and the particular work portrayed on each card. As an example, the card you see in 20307470B illustrates “Pozhenzi – A Poem to Chen Tongfu in a Heroic Vein,” by Xin Qiji. It’s said to be a patriotic poem full of heroism, and the caption is remarkably colloquial and colourful–almost but not quite enough for us to want to look further into the history. It’s a nice set, and we have two of them. Grades: 1
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Cinema lottery card
This long, unused card (3-1/16″ x 9-7/8″) issued by China Post comes in three connected parts: the card itself, with pre-printed postage, a QR code, and a lottery number; a middle section with what looks like instructions and another serial number; and the orange stub. The reverse refers to two websites and it looks like you can also download Apps for your own use there. Complicated, and entirely in Chinese. There’s a bit of creasing, not serious. Grade: 2
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Happy Every Day (set)
This is a set of eight unused cards with pre-printed postage (sample on bottom of scan) in a red cardboard cover (top half of scan). All say “Happy Every Day” but they celebrate various joyous occasions: love, wooden soldiers, cake with starfruit on top, snowman, and some cards with just words (in Chinese). The set was produced in 2009. Grade: 1
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Lei Feng Spirit (booklet)
We continue to face the challenge of how to describe these China Post products–as you will keep seeing–and this one should be easy, but it’s not. It is a soft booklet measuring about 4-1/4″ x 5-5/8″ and though it came from China Post, the first thing on the first inner page is “Bank of China”. But let’s start with the cover, about the selfless and modest soldier/hero, Lei Feng. The title translates something like this: Strive for being the follower of Lei Feng’s spirit. Promote the new spirit of social civilization. Once inside, the booklet is a mix of text and drawings (see 20307473B), which look like they should fold out accordion-style, but they don’t.
The second half of the booklet has similar drawings, but each page (in this case, they do fold out) is a flimsy postcard with pre-printed postage. There appear to be six of these pages of postcards. It is an unusual item, to be sure, and of course unused. Grade: 1
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Lei Feng Spirit (booklet) – sample pages
See our entry 20307473A for the overall description. These are two samples from the many pages. On the left, “One’s life is limited, yet service for the people is unlimited. I want to devote my limited life to unlimited service for the people,” and on the right, “A piece of wood has no hole in it. How can a man put a nail into it? This all depends on pressure to push the nail in, and glue onto it.” … (do promote the spirit of becoming good at pressing and gluing.) One does need to know the real importance of Lei Feng to appreciate this fully.
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Taikang Life Insurance (not a postcard)
Although the right size and shape to be a postcard, this is not. It’s something to do with Life Insurance. We list it because we thought it was unusual to find anything in China with a serial number of 0000001. Fully printed on both sides. Grade: 1
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Bright moon
Printed in 2009 and issued by China Post with pre-printed postage, this card translates as “Bright moon sends my thinking of you and gives you my true love across thousands of miles.” (Who knew that China Post had it in them?) Three of these unused cards are available. Grades: 1
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Teaching
Similar in style to our entry 20307475, this unused card, issued by China Post with pre-printed stamp, says “your meticulous teaching helps me go through life and come back with triumph.” Grade: 1
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Cloisonne (Maximum cards) (set of six)
Set of six maximum cards, issued in April 2013, each captioned in Chinese and English. We were lucky to get the last few sets available at the post office. Grades: 1
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Sun Tzu’s Art of War – boxed set including postcard
This is one of the finest items we have ever seen from China Post, and it was a localised product from Shenzhen Senruiqiao Culture Development Co. We will describe it briefly, but see several photos (20307478B through G) as more descriptive aids.
The entire item comes in a hardwood box measuring 5-5/8″ x 8″ x 2-1/2″. (Some very minor dings in the wood can be treated with a good furniture polish.) Open the hinged lid to see, inside the top cover, a book containing a mint stamp set and a serially numbered certificate that is also a postcard with a pre-printed stamp.
Yes, that’s a little magnifying glass in the middle, and you would need it to read these bamboo scrolls that each unroll to reveal chapters of Sun Tzu’s work. A search engine will tell you all about him, and we will now let the other photos speak for themselves. If you want more information that we can provide, please ask. Special postage rate (at cost) will apply. To be fair, because of those very very minor marks on the box, we will call the entire product as Grade 2, though it is reasonably Grade: 1
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2012 Lunar New Year Lottery card
Jumbo (4″ x 10-5/8″) unused card with pre-printed postage and a lottery number. Though the lottery itself is long finished, the card is still visually impressive. Grade: 1
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Zhen Xi Mei Yi Di Shui (folio)
From Guangdong Philatelic in 2013, this is a folio measuring 7-1/4″ x 10-1/4″. Open it up to see, on the left, text (Chinese only) and one mint stamp in a small sleeve. On the right, also in a sleeve, is a postcard almost identical in design to the cover but without the words; and on the back of the postcard, the same stamp that is also on the left–but no postmark. China goes Green! Grade: 1
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Wonderful Workmanship Excelling Nature Stamp Collection – Jade (with postcards)
From the Guangdong office of China Post, this 2012 product is a hardcover book encased in a translucent sturdy (hard) plastic sleeve. Scan for this entry 20307481A is the cover of the book, and 20307481B is one of the four facings with postcards in maximum style but without postmarks. Other facings in this book of four hard pages (so a total of ten facings, including front and back inside covers) include mint stamps and envelopes. With bilingual captions in Chinese and English, this item–which is all about jade–can best be described as elegant, and a piece of art all on its own. The product when in the plastic cover measures 7-3/4″ x 10-5/8″. Grade: 1
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Wonderful Workmanship Excelling Nature Stamp Collection – Jade (with postcards)
See entry 20307481A. As a reminder, this is one of the pages with one of the postcards. All are different.
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Shenzhen (linked set)
Here is an unused series of eight small (3-1/8″ x 5″) postcards with pre-printed stamps, issued by China Post, all linked together, fold-out style. These are all different views of Shenzhen, the city twice the size of Hong Kong and just across Hong Kong’s northern border. This scan shows two of the eight views, including Shenzhen’s Library. Grade: 1
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Temples (set of 4) (Maximum cards)
We apologise yet again for not knowing how to describe the printing process on these cards (four per set, enclosed in cardboard cover). The scan shows the cover (top) and one of the four cards (bottom), but cannot tell you the very fine texturing of the artwork on each card–very fine, almost microscopic embossment. Issued in 2007, and captioned in Chinese only. We have four of these sets available. Though the sets (and cards) are exactly as received from China Post, the cards have some smudging on their reverses. It’s not from careless handling, it’s just the way they are. Three are just the sets (Grades: 2, $24) and one is the same set but with a personal signature on the inside cover from the designer himself (Grade: 2, $39).
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The postcards for Lingnan – Elegance (cover)
Introduction: Items 20307484, 485, and 486 are similar. Each consists of two pieces: (1) a heavy, hardcover book (9-1/8″ x 10-1/8″) of many pages of stamps, art, and bilingual Chinese/English text; and (2) a smaller softcover book (4″ x 9″) bound with 12 corresponding postcards, this time not including any pre-printed postage.
Item 20307484 is entitled “The ‘Lingnan – Elegance’ Stamps Collection Album”. 484A shows the cover of the book of postcards. We are not showing any more from item 20307484, because each of these three different sets is similar.
Item 20307485 is “The ‘Lingnan – Charm’ Stamps Collection Album”. 485A shows the cover of the book of postcards. 485B shows the cover of the large book’s case. 485C shows two pages within the large book. They were impossible to scan, but they have elaborate art, and mint stamps.
Item 20307486 is “The ‘Lingnan – Linger’ Stamps Collection Album.” 486A shows the cover of the book of postcards. We’re not showing any more from 486, because it is similar to the other two sets.
So, altogether, three sets of two items each. They are heavy. This price is for all three sets (six items). Grade: 1
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The Postcards for Lingnan – Charm (cover)
See item 20307484A.
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The “Lingnan – Charm” Stamps Collection Album (cover)
See item 20307484A.
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The “Lingnan – Charm” Stamps Collection Album (two pages of large book)
See item 20307484A.
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The Postcards for Lingnan – Linger (cover of smaller book)
See item 20307484A.
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2013 Lunar New Year of the Snake – set of four postcards
This item from China Post measures 6″ x 8-1/4″ and opens up to reveal two folded pages of text. Open each of those pages in turn and the entire set, completely unfolded, is therefore about 33″ long with each of the four facing sides having a plastic sleeve containing a pre-printed postage postcard bearing a different “snake” legend. The title in this scan more or less says “The Spiritual Serpent Can Disguise into Human Figure to Return Gratitude” and this entire thing is rich in artistic symbolism. Grade: 1
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The Memorable Years: Modern Chinese Musicians (I) (set)
This whole item, issued by China National Philatelic Corporation, measures 7-3/8″ x 10-1/4″ x 1/8″. Inside the cardboard sleeve (pictured here), there are four folios, captioned in Chinese and English, each with a mint stamp set and a maximum card, honouring one musician. See our entries 488B and 488C for examples of one folio. Being thoroughly modern, there is a QR code and website information on the back of each folio. Grade: 1
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The Memorable Years: Modern Chinese Musicians (I) (set) – One page of Lin Tianhua folder
See entry 20307488A. Each of the folios represents a different musician.
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The Memorable Years: Modern Chinese Musicians (I) (set) – Postcard page of Lin Tianhua folder
See our entry 20307488A.
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Xiang Lei Feng Tong Zhi Xue Xi (book of stamps and cards)
More about Comrade Lei Feng. This is a sturdy softcover book (8-1/4″ x 11-1/4″ x 1/4″, pictured) in a cardboard sleeve (similar). Our other scans will give you the idea, but it has pages of text, artwork, mint stamps individually and in a set, one postcard, and one unpostmarked cover. There is a sort of lined notebook in the back, a few pages. This product was issued by the Guangdong office of China Post in 2013. Please also see scans 489B and 489C as well. Grade: 1
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Xiang Lei Feng Tong Zhi Xue Xi (book – postcard page)
See 20307489A.
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Asian Games 2010 (four pieces of 14 cards each, as a set)
Sorry for the photo quality, but at 11-3/4″ x 30″ for each of the four different sheets in the set, they wouldn’t fit in the scanner. Entitled “Welcome to 2010 Asian Games Guangzhou,” each sheet contains 14 postcards (pre-printed postage) of 14 different sports. These are perforated, so one could–if one wanted to do it–just separate the cards and mail them. If you wish to buy, we will get a sturdy round mailing tube and send these rolled instead of folded if we’re allowed to do that. Grade: 1
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Over Battlefields, Liaoyang, Manchuria
Captioned card mailed in South Dakota (not Manchuria!) in the early 1900s–stamp is there, but postmark is not distinct. We think these cards of this style were produced for domestic sale in the USA, though welcome your input on this. Grade: 3
