China Post is to issue a set of two commemorative stamps under the title of The 50th Anniversary of China-Spain Diplomatic Relations jointly with its counterpart in Spain, Correos. The designs of the stamps are named Hengshui Lake and Laguna de Fuente Piedra respectively. The denomination of the whole set is 2.40 yuan and the planned circulation is 6.9 million sets.

Spain is an ancient civilization in Europe, located in Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, with the capital city of Madrid. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the ancient land Silk Road linked the ancient city of Chang’an (present-day Xi’an, Shaanxi) with Tarragona in Spain, and Chinese and Spanish civilizations intertwined and attracted each other. The People’s Republic of China and the Kingdom of Spain established diplomatic relations on March 9, 1973. Over the past half century, China and Spain have adhered to mutual respect and active exchanges and dialogue, and carried out mutually beneficial cooperation. On November 2005, the two countries established comprehensive strategic partnership.

The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain. With the photographs of Hengshui Lake in China and Laguna de Fuente Piedra in Spain as the main body, the stamps present the natural beauty and ecological characteristics of the lakes in the two countries. Correos will use the same design elements to issue stamps on the subject of the 50th anniversary of China-Spain diplomatic relations.

The stamps are designed by Ma Lihang and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited with photogravure technology.

The set of 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.