French post offices in China
Appearance
The French post offices in China were among the post offices maintained by foreign powers in China around the beginning of the 20th century. The French government issued special postage stamps for these offices beginning in 1894, initially for all the offices, then overprinted with the name of the city in which the post office was located. Seven post offices had these overprints (here written as they appeared on the stamps):
- Canton (1901-1919)
- Hoi Hao (1901-1919)
- Kwangchowan (1906-1941)
- Mongtseu (1903-1919)
- Pakhoi (1903-1919)
- Tchongking (1903-1919)
- Yunnan Fou (1903-1919)
The post offices were closed in 1921, with the exception of Kwangchowan, which had been leased in 1898 and was not formally returned to China until 1946.
Sources
- Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
- Encyclopaedia of Postal History
- Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: The Stamp Atlas
- Dr. Jérôme Chane-Tune, Bureaux français et indochinois en Chine. Essai de nomenclature des timbres à date des bureaux de poste (1863-1922) [French and Indochinese PO in China - comprehensive and practical nomenclature of the datestamps used (1863 - 1922)] , Colfra Editions, Paris, 2005. [1]