On Feburary 4, 2022, China Post is to issue 2 commemorative stamps entitled In Commemoration of the Opening Ceremony of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in one 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 XXIV Olympic Winter Games will be held during February 4 to 20 in Beijing and Zhangjiakou. This is the third time for China to hold Olympic games after the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics and the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games. Beijing, therefore, becomes the first “Dual Olympic City” with both Summer and Winter Olympics in the history of the Games. Since 2017, China Post has issued 18 pieces of commemorative stamps in 5 sets, 2 pieces of special stamps for personalized service in one set and 3 sets of ordinary prepaid envelopes and postcards on the theme of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Designed by Wang Huming, this set of stamps take white and blue as the main colors 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 overall pictures of the stamps are concise and exquisite, manifesting an ethereal, elegant and modern sense of design, coinciding with the philosophy of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.

The stamps are printed with offset printing technology by Henan Posts and Telecommunications Printing House Company Limited to underline the elements of ice and snow in Olympic Winter Games. 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.

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 4 will be carried out through online channels such as the online mall https://jiyou.11185.cn, and offline sales will not be conducted that day. To present more information about the stamps, China Post will release 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.