Hongkong Post

For the Japanese-language newspaper, see Hong Kong Post.

Hongkong Post

Type	Trading fund
Industry	Post, Philately
Genre	Postal service
Founded	1841
Founder(s)	Royal Mail
Headquarters	Hongkong Post Headquarters, 2 Connaught Place, Central Hong Kong
Area served	Hong Kong
Key people	Jessie Ting Yip Yin-mei, Postmaster General and General Manager of the Post Office Trading Fund
Services	Postal services, Philatelic services
Owner(s)	Government of Hong Kong
Website	http://www.hongkongpost.com

Hongkong Post
Traditional Chinese	香港郵政
Simplified Chinese	香港邮政
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Xiānggǎng Yóuzhèng Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping Hoeng1 Gong2 Jau4 Zing3

Hongkong Post (Chinese: 香港郵政) is a department under the Government of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a Trading Fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office^{[citation needed]} (Chinese: 郵政署) before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It is sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.

History

General Post Office circa 1911.

Merchants traded in Hong Kong at the two sides of Victoria Harbour as early as before the British possession in 1842. They complained about the absence of proper postal services and therefore the Postal Department was established.

The department was founded on August 28, 1841 but the first post office (a.k.a. 書信館 at that time), situated near the recent site of St. John's Cathedral, opened later on November 12. At the beginning its right to operation belonged to the Royal Mail until its transfer to the Postmaster General on May 1, 1860.

On December 8, 1862, the Office issued the first set of Hong Kong postal stamps. Before that, only British soldiers in Hong Kong could use British stamps while other local residents did not have any. Until the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, BFPO 1 was the address for British forces serving in the then colony. When sending mail from the UK to a member of HM Forces serving overseas, the sender must address it to the appropriate BFPO number, and not to the country in which that person is based. BFPO1 addressed mail was charged at the inland UK rate.

In 1989, the Office introduced automated mail sorting and machines installed in the General Post Office. Unlike mainland China, there is no post code system in Hong Kong, although one has been under consideration since 2000.

Since August 1995, the Office operates as a Trading Fund. Full title of the head of the Office becomes Postmaster General and General Manager of the Post Office Trading Fund (Chinese: 香港郵政署長兼郵政署營運基金總經理).

Before 1997, the post boxes were painted red as in the United Kingdom, and was engraved with a British Royal Coat of Arms. After the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the livery of the drop-off boxes has become green, with the new Hongkong Post logo. As of December 2011, only 59 colonial post boxes bearing the royal insignia are still in service on the streets of Hong Kong.

Postal history

Main article: Postage stamps and postal history of Hong Kong

During the colonial era, Hong Kong produced postage stamps simply bearing the name Hong Kong, with the likenesses (in profile) of the reigning monarchs of the United Kingdom, or with the royal symbols, for example, "EIIR" (short form for "Elizabeth II Regina" ) to represent Queen Elizabeth II. Since the Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, stamps issued bear the name Hong Kong, China.

British Hong Kong postage stamps are no longer valid for prepayment of postage or repurchased by the Post Office.

Post Offices

Main article: List of Hong Kong post offices

Post offices of the Hongkong Post are scattered throughout Hong Kong. As of 2007, there are 34 of them on Hong Kong Island, 42 at Kowloon, 45 in the New Territories and 8 on the Outlying Islands. There are two mobile post offices providing postal services in remote areas in the New Territories.

Services

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Post

In addition to making its income from traditional postal delivery, it also sells philatelic products, and other sales, and is used by the Government and utilities to accept payment.

Philately

Hongkong Post Stamps was a division set up in 1974 charged with promoting and popularising stamp collecting, and to meet the ever-increasing demand for Hong Kong stamps by collectors. Today, there are three main areas of work:

1. stamp product design and production,
2. fulfillment and advance ordering service and
3. philatelic marketing.

Owing to its conservative stamp-issuing policy, stamp collecting in Hong Kong is popular hobby. Different types of attractively designed stamp products are popular with stamp collectors around the world.

Other

A SpeedPost delivery van

Hongkong Post also provides services listed below:

• Local Courier Post
• Speedpost
• Periodicals/Circular/Direct Mail services
• e-Post
• e-Cert (Electronic Certificate for e-commerce)
• e-Business
• Franking machine
• Postal remittance service (to Canada, Mainland China, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal and the Philippines)
• Electronic remittance service (through Western Union)
• PayThruPost (Bill payment)
• Logistics, etc.

Incidents

• In 2005, newspapers revealed that there were pinhole cameras installed in Cheung Sha Wan Post Office thus violating people's privacy. Hongkong Post explained that such installation was necessary for facilitating police investigation about several suspected theft cases.

• In March 2007, two postmen lost three bags of mails heading to Wan Chai and the Eastern District in the management offices of certain buildings. Though Hongkong Post eventually found one of the lost bags, it is estimated that about 400 letters were lost. The offices where the mails disappeared are not in the list of official keeping places of mailbags. Therefore, Hongkong Post put the two postmen into disciplinary actions for their ignorance. However, some in the postmen's union said there was little chance for ignorance and it might be a robbery.

Achievements

• Hongkong Post won the "Hong Kong Awards for Industries - Productivity and Quality Award" in 2005 for its achievement in productivity enhancement and total quality management
• It was awarded the Caring Organisation Logo 2005/06 by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service
• It won the Gold Level Certification in the Universal Postal Union EMS Cooperative Audit and Measurement Programme 2005
• It won the Web Care Award 2005 - Gold Prize from Internet Professional Association
• It sets the new Guinness World Record for the largest stamp mosaic.

Postage rate

The postage rates vary from one service to another and these can be found at the company's website.

Gallery

• 

  A large letter box found at Tsim Sha Tsui

• 

  An ordinary stamp vending machine located at a post office

• 

  A postage label vending machine located at Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office. Postage labels are instantly-printed stamps with customizable or pre-set postage fees. It was discontinued service and then removed since summer 2008.

See also

• Chunghwa Post
• China Post
• CTT (Macau)
• List of postal services abroad
• List of postal services by countries
• List of Hong Kong companies
• Royal Mail - operated in Hong Kong from 1841 to 1870

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: The Stamp Atlas
• Webb, F. W. (1961) The Philatelic and Postal History of Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports of China and Japan, The Royal Philatelic Society London

External links

• Hongkong Post official website (English) (traditional Chinese (HK)) (Chinese)
• Hong kong Postcode
• Hongkong Post Stamps official website (philatelistics)
• Chapter 98 POST OFFICE ORDINANCE in the Law of Hong Kong