On January 5, the first-day-of-issue ceremony for the special stamps entitled Bing-Wu Year was grandly held at the International Conference Hall of People’s Daily.

The official issuance of this set of stamps marked the beginning of the celebrations for the upcoming Year of the Horse. At the ceremony, Liu Aili, chairman of China Post Group Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as China Post Group), Pan Lusheng, vice president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Wang Wenzhang, former vice minister of the Ministry of Culture (now the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), Fan Di’an, chairman of China Artists Association, Chen Kai, deputy head of the State Post Bureau, and Dai Yingjun, director of All-China Philatelic Federation, jointly unveiled the special stamps Bing-Wu Year. Liu Aili delivered a speech at the event. Zheng Guoyu, president of China Post Group, presented the No. 01 stamp sheet of Bing-Wu Year to the China National Archives of Publications and Culture for permanent collection.

On the same day, China Post issued a miniature sheet which was jointly printed with Hongkong Post and Macao Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT) on the same Chinese zodiac theme. Qu Yunhai, vice president of China Post Group, Ms. Lau Wai Meng, director of CTT, and Ms. Helen Chan, deputy postmaster general of Hongkong Post, jointly unveiled the miniature sheet.

The whole set of the Bing-Wu Year special stamps consists of two stamps. The first stamp, named “Galloping Toward Grand Aspirations”, depicts a crimson horse galloping through auspicious clouds, with its mane fluttering like flames, expressing best wishes that, in the new year, China’s economic and social development will continue to make steady and long-term progress and forge ahead toward the major goals of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) under the Party’s leadership. The second stamp “Myriad Steeds Heralding Blessings” features three gallant steeds running shoulder by shoulder amid auspicious patterns, symbolizing that people from all ethnic groups across the country will pool their tremendous strength and unite with one heart on the journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects and advance the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts.

The Bing-Wu Year special stamps were designed by Wang Hongwei and Zhao Enzhong and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited via offset intaglio technology. The denomination of the whole set is 2.40 yuan. The planned circulation is 26.68 million sets of the stamps, 1.62 million sheets for layout 2 and 2.8 million stamp booklets.

The set of stamps has become available since January 5 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.