After the grand opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on February 4, China Post officially issued the commemorative stamps on this event. The stamps entitled In Commemoration of the Opening Ceremony of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games, are two pieces in a set, the designs of which are respectively named “Together for a Shared Future” and “The Light of Hope”. The denomination of the stamps is 2.40 yuan, and 11.5 million sets of such stamps are planned to be issued. The overall pictures of stamps are concise and exquisite, manifest an ethereal, elegant and modern sense of design, coincide with the philosophy of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games, and are therefore well received by all sectors of the society. 

White and blue are the main colors used on the stamps to highlight the concept of grand winter sports. The designs of the stamps transform the rich and dynamic audio-visual language on the opening ceremony into a graphic language. Through the deconstruction and reorganization of the three-dimensional space and time span, the classic elements of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics are presented in a two-dimensional plane, reflecting the design philosophy of “the moment is eternal”. The first picture “Together for a Shared Future” uses the technologies of holographic cat eye and laser embossing. When the stamp is turned, the colorful changes of the Winter Olympics emblem and the Chinese knot can be seen vividly. The second picture “The light of Hope” integrates holographic cold foil stamping with other technologies to highlight the three-dimensional snowflake and flickering flame. Under illumination, the picture becomes rich and dynamic, showing a sense of modernity and high-tech.

   With a strong sense of responsibility and work enthusiasm, China Post is highly committed and dedicated in the whole process from the design and printing of the stamps to the transportation and sales. Compared with the commemorative stamps with the theme of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games issued in the past, the issuance and sales of this set of stamps are more demanding and difficult. In order to cope with the challenges of the Spring Festival holidays and the outbreak of COVID-19 in many places across the country, China Post has gone all out to overcome difficulties and seize every minute and second. The whole process from the design, printing, transportation and sales of the stamps is kept confidential in accordance with the requirements of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: to ensure that the drafts and real pictures of the stamps are not leaked before the issuance, to ensure that special measures are taken to keep the stamps and philatelic products confidential during the whole process of distribution, and to ensure that everyone understands the requirements for confidentiality and sales with no process and no one left.

In order to meet the public demand for the stamps and philatelic products of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, the pre-sale activities had started since January 21 on China Post's online mall (https://11185.cn). The set of stamps will be available for 6 months from February 4 at designated postal outlets nationwide, online mall of China Philately (https://jiyou.11185.cn), the mobile app of China Post, the WeChat Mall for philatelic products in the official WeChat account and the WeChat mini program of China Post Group. Among others, the sales at postal outlets on February 4th were carried out through online channels such as the online mall https://jiyou.11185.cn, and offline sales was not conducted that day. To present more information about the stamps, China Post has released the digital contents through the WeChat mini program “Encyclopedia of China Philately and Stamps”, where philatelists can learn more about the stamps via its AR function.

It is said that since the successful bid for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games in 2015, China Post has released 6 sets of 20 commemorative stamps, 2 personalized graphic patterns and nearly 100 types of philatelic products, which comprehensively recorded every important moment from successful bid for the Games to the preparation. At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, a historical moment as such, China Post issued commemorative stamps simultaneously, further demonstrating its role in promoting and supporting the Olympic Winter Games via stamps.

 Commemorative Stamps for Opening Ceremony of the 24th Olympic Winter Games