The Postal History of Hankow, China 1891-1919 A 10-Frame Grand Award Winning Philatelic Exhibit By Sammy (Sam) G Chiu Ph.D.

Summary: A 10-frame exhibit that shows the most relevant and interesting postal history period of Hankow in Central China, from the time of the forerunners as Customs Post Office, to Chinese Imperial Post Office and eventually to the Republic of China Post Office to the end of WWI in 1919. Its most important foreign Post Offices, the British Post Office, is also shown for its long service history in the same time frame, while examples of the less important foreign Post Offices in Hankow, those of France, Japan, Germany and Russian are also shown.

Hankow is regarded as the center point of China for most. With such geographical importance, it has natural land or railroad links north to the Capital in Peking and south to Canton and Hong Kong. It is also on the Yangtse River about halfway between Shanghai and Chungking, so it is an important link by boats on one of China’s most important arteries.

It was where China first iron foundry was founded and manufactured rails for the Hankow-Peking Railroad. As such, it naturally became a railroad hub. Historically, it was also a center hub for the tea trade, even in the international sense.

Historically, the 1911 Revolution that engulf the entire country which also ended China’s Imperial history and changed it into a democracy, was also started in Hankow.

This exhibit received the Grand Award at PIPEX 2021, the first virtual national level show in the Grand Champion Series, which was also a World Series of Philately show. As the Grand Prize recipient, the exhibit then qualified to enter the American Philatelic Society’s Champion-of-Champions competition in 2021, as the first-ever virtual show Grand Award entrance.

Philatelic Bio: • Collector since childhood and returned to hobby mid-life • Became an exhibitor to qualify for apprenticeship to judge at national level shows • Accredited judge, Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, 1997 • FIP Jury Fellow (2018), for postal history (2004) and postal stationery (2013) • As of Jan 2022, received 125 medals in open competition in national and international shows (32 Large Gold and 46 Gold Medals) • Only Canadian to receive AAPE Sapphire Award, 2019 • Only Canadian to have 2 exhibits in the same Champion-of-champions competition, 2017 • 1 of 2 Canadians to receive the AAPE Diamond Award, 2017 • Received 12 APS Research Medals (for 5 different exhibits) • Editor, Journal, Postal History Society of China, 2001-2004 • Editor, Journal of Chinese Philately, China Philatelic Society of London, 2020-present • Co-author, Postage due and the handling underpaid mail of Hong Kong, self-published, 1996 • Fellow, Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, 2010 • Vice President, Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, 2017 to present • Vice President, Philatelic Specialist Society of Canada, 2015-2019 • Fellow, Royal Philatelic Society of London, 2019 • Member, Canada Post, Stamp Advisory Committee, 2006-2012 • President, John Bull Stamps Auctions Ltd, 2009-2010 • President, David Feldman Asia Ltd, 2011-2012 • President, Dynasty Auctions, 2013-2014 • Entered postal history items in the Hong Kong Study Circle’s: Wilde Cup for Discovery competition and won for the years 2019, 2020, 2021

Copyright ©2022 Sam Chiu -- All Rights Reserved