The first post office in Hong Kong was established in 1841 and since that time it has provided reliable postal services to the public. 2021 celebrates the 180th anniversary of Hong Kong’s postal service and to mark this special occasion, the Post Office introduced a set of six stamps that showcase the development of the postal service and its evolution for over a century.
The first stamp features a postman who is delivering mail on a bicycle in the 1970s with the old General Post Office building located at the corner of Pedder Street and Des Voeux Road from 1911 to 1976 in the background. The second item also shows postmen hurrying along the street to deliver long-awaited letters. It also depicts a Chinese tenement building in the 1980s, where letterboxes of various designs could be seen. The third stamp is devoted to the Mechanised Letter Sorting System (MLSS) that was commissioned in 1990.
The next stamp of the issue features the Central Mail Centre that started its operation in October 2014. The fifth item is dedicated to smart self-service initiatives like iPostal Stations which allow mail collection by clients at their own convenience since 2016. And the last stamp illustrates the robotic mail sorting system that is under planning nowadays. Besides, all the items from this philatelic issue feature various signs and symbols like the symbol “@” representing online service or a QR code and an image of the globe, which signify Hongkong Post’s persistence in introducing innovative postal services.
