China Post is to issue a set of 4 special stamps and 1 souvenir sheet entitled Masterpieces of Chinese Classical Literature – Journey to the West (Series 5) on April 27, 2023. The designs of the four stamps are about the adventures in Shituo Mountain, the Kingdom of Biqiu, the Bottomless Cave and the Kingdom of Tianzhu. The souvenir sheet is about the five sages achieving their goals. The denomination of the whole set is 11.10 yuan. The planned circulation is respectively 8.5 million sets, 990 000 sheets for layout two, 5.98 million souvenir sheets, and 150 000 folders for blocks of four stamps are to be issued additionally.

Journey to the West, written by Chinese novelist Wu Cheng’en in the Ming Dynasty, is one of the classics in ancient Chinese deity and demon novels. The novel consists of 100 chapters which tells the story of Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing escorting the Buddhist monk Xuanzang on his pilgrimage to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures. They subdued demons and monsters all the way as they went through eighty-one difficulties before they finally achieved their goals. With a large number of vivid characters, this novel is full of romantic fantasy, contains rich philosophy of life in humor and satire, and criticizes the way of the world while pursuing ideals with unremittingly enterprising spirit.

This set of stamps is designed by Li Yunzhong, a young painter and member of the Inner Mongolia Artists Association, and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited with photogravure technology.

These stamps will be available for six months 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. To present more information about the stamps, China Post will release their 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.