China Post is to issue a set of three special stamps and a souvenir sheet entitled Modern Bridge Construction. The designs of the three stamps are respectively named Shanghai-Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge, Oujiang Beikou Bridge and the Third Pingnan Bridge. The design of the souvenir sheet is named Beipan River Bridge. The denomination of the whole set of stamps is 9.60 yuan. The planned circulation is 7.35 million sets of stamps and 5.85 million souvenir sheets.

The Shanghai-Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge, independently designed and built by China, is the world’s first cable-stayed bridge with a main span of more than 1,000 meters that can accommodate both cars and trains. The bridge boasts five world records, which makes it a milestone in the history of railway bridge construction in China and even in the world. The Oujiang Beikou Bridge is the world’s first three-tower four-span double-decked steel-truss suspension bridge, holding three world records. The Third Pingnan Bridge is a concrete-filled steel tubular arch bridge with the largest span among all the bridges opened to traffic in the world. During its construction, 20 research projects were established and eventually 58 inventions were patented. The Beipan River Bridge connecting Yunnan and Guizhou is a twin-tower four-lane steel-truss cable-stayed bridge. Soaring 565 meters (equivalent to a 200-story skyscraper) over Beipan River, it’s currently the world’s highest bridge with the second largest span of its kind. 

The designers of the stamps adopt the art form of watercolor painting, combine dry and wet techniques, and draw upon different perspectives such as bird’s eye, ground-level and eye-level view to show the exterior characteristics of the bridges and their imposing momentum of flying over rivers and mountains, as well as the beautiful ecological environment and unique natural landscapes of their surrounding areas.

This set of stamps is designed by Guo Zhenshan and Yang Rui, and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited through offset technology for the stamps and photogravure for the souvenir sheet.

These stamps will be available for 6 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 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.