China Post is to issue a set of two commemorative stamps entitled 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 on September 23, 2023. The stamp designs are respectively named The Emblem and The Mascots. The denomination of the whole set is 2.40 yuan, and 7.83 million sets of the stamps and 885,000 sheets for layout 2 are planned to be circulated.

The 19th Asian Games is scheduled to be held from September 23 to October 8 in Hangzhou. The Games include 40 sports, 61 disciplines and 481 events in four categories of competitive, ball, adversary and water sports, into which esports and breaking are officially introduced for the first time. The emblem “Surging Tides” is composed of six elements: a Chinese fan, the Qiantang River, a tidal bore, a running track, the Wi-Fi signal icon and the glowing red sun of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The mascots, named Chenchen, Congcong and Lianlian respectively, are a group of robots proclaiming the host city’s profound heritage and contemporary vibrancy. The combination — Memories of Jiangnan — derives its name from a poem by Bai Juyi. This great Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet wrote, “When I recall Jiangnan, Hangzhou brings back most of my memories.” The name itself speaks volumes about Hangzhou’s heritage, scenic splendor and drive for innovation.

The set of stamps is designed in the form of a se-tenant pair. The main design of each stamp features respectively the emblem and the mascots of the Hangzhou Asian Games, below which are the core graphics and color schemes of the Games, thus integrating Chinese color culture and the distinctive characteristics of the host city Hangzhou, and making the overall design concise and bright and the theme prominent.

The stamps are designed by Shao Lichen and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited with photogravure and offset lithography overprinting and offset printing technologies.

This set of 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 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.