China issued its first postage stamp set - "Large Dragons" in 1878. The stamp’s patterns featured a dragon, which is the symbol of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). To mark the 140th anniversary of the "Large Dragons" stamps, China Post organized an artifacts traveling exhibition from July 24th to Aug 26th.
Aimed to trace the development of Chinese postage, the travelling exhibition will tour several cities including Tianjin - the initial issue venue of the "Large Dragons" stamp, Beijing, Yingkou - a city in Liaoning province, Yantai - a city in Shandong Province and Shanghai.
The highlights of the exhibition are a complete "Large Dragons" set from Tianjin Postage Museum and a postbox blue print from the Second Historic Archives of China in Nanjing. In addition the travelling exhibition will be a part of this year's Post Week through Aug 4th to 9th across the country. To promote stamp-collecting, various activities like cultural relics promotion, postcard initiative ceremony, online voting and other activities will be held to the public.
China Post will issue two sets of stamps during the event, including the Landscapes of Four Seasons by Liu Songnian - a master painter of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) - which is now in the collection of the Palace Museum. The other set will be about the 24 Solar Terms.