do we have any members that collect stamps of China? i have not seen many stamps from here and i am curious what your experiences have been like trying to collect form this country.

I overheard a snippet of a conversation between dealers at a recent stamp show and they were discussing China.

From what I picked up the current state of China is that for decades China was issuing stamps while having a huge population so poor they couldn't afford to send a letter much less collect stamps and even that if they were literate at all.

Things have, as you know, changed dramatically in China over the past 10 or 15 years and China's newly developing middle, upper and elite economic classes are scooping up anything Chinese they can get their hands on and willing to pay premium prices for it too.

What segment of the stamp market that applies to I can only assume is the more desirable and/or key stamps but it could be across the board for all I know... like I said I only heard a short bit of the conversation.

I will say what I've seen of Chinese issues they look like they'd be an awesome collection though.

yep and usually more expensive then any other countries, but i have 4 beautiful chines stamps (something is better then nothing)

ohh one thing to anyone who try to buy chines stamps blindly like me, chines stamps specially from 50's 60's and 70's have chines all over then if any stamps have written "china" in english there are 80% chances that it will belongs to republic of china (taiwan) not people republic of china (mainland china)

China is one of those interesting little (okay not so little) that has gone through many changes over the course of philatelic history. There are now 2 China's, but historically there have been many others. Imperial China, Republic, Japanese occupied, the People's Republic (Communist), and let us not forget the cities controlled by other countries (i.e Hong Kong and Macau). Can lead to an interesting collection and history lesson.

hong kong still issuing stamps so we can consider it as a different territory (in term of stamp collecting), also when people talk about china mostly they reffer to mainland, other wise china also claim for taiwan , does Tibet issue any stamps?

a good article on rare chines stamps.

http://www.chinastampshere.com/rare-china-stamps.html

I collect China (PRC). I have mainly more recent issues, from the 80s and 90s. I also get new issues. My wife is Chinese, so I thought she might be a big help in navigating the jungle of overprints. Forget it. She refers to my hobby as "your s**t stamps," and it's a pain trying to solicit her help, so I just limit myself to new issues, now.

Tedski

lol, something i heard every day from my friends and family.

Guess I am lucky then. Have a partner that is also into stamp. Therefore no rolling of the eyes or the looks when I start talking about them.

oh man youpiao you gotta share some of those with us!! i my self am not looking for more work but i am interested in seeing more ... hmmm "flavor" on the boards..

Not a collector of China or Taiwan, but, nevertheless, as a random accumulator of such stamps i can offer some eye candy.

Butterflies those are great!! i really like the great wall issues..

Hmm. I could have sworn I posted some pics, but I come back from my evening stroll with my wife and find nothing. Probably closed the browser while the post was still in "Preview."

Tedski