Prize Awarding Ceremony of 5th Desheng Cup Best Foreign Stamp Annual Poll Held

On the morning of October 25, 2006, the prize awarding ceremony of the 5th desheng cup best foreign stamp annual poll and the opening ceremonies of the Foreign Stamp Exhibition and the Foreign Stamp Festival were held at the Beijing Desheng International Culture Exchange Centre. Chen Haosu, president of the CPAFFC, Chang Yanting, vice-chairman of the All China Philatelic Federation, diplomats of 23 Embassies in China, including the Embassies of Germany, Ukraine, Vietnam, Mongolia and Peru, and representatives from relevant organizations attended the ceremonies. The Mongolia Post Delegation, the Canada-China Friendship Society Delegation, the Bosnia-Herzegovina Post Delegation, the Botswana Post Delegation and the DPRK Post Delegation came to China specially for attending the awarding ceremony. President Chen Haosu, Vice-Chairman Chang Yanting and General Manager Zhang Xijun of the Beijing Desheng International Culture Exchange Centre gave speeches at the ceremony.

Jointly sponsored by the CPAFFC, the All-China Philatelic Federation (ACPF), the Stamp Printing Department of the State Post Bureau, and the Editorial Board of the Dragon World Postage Stamp Catalogue, the Best Foreign Stamp Annual Poll has been held in five consecutive years since its initiation in 2002. The event, widely praised for its good influence, has won attention and active participation of the post authorities, philatelic organizations and friendship organizations of many countries, foreign Embassies in China and philatelists at home and abroad. The aims of the poll are to help introduce Chinese philately to the world, to increase the Chinese people’s, especially the philatelists’ understanding of foreign stamps so as to promote the exchanges in philatelic culture between China and foreign countries and to improve the standards of theme-choosing, design and printing of Chinese stamps and writing and editing of philately documents. Each year, the winners of the Best Stamp and Best Sheet are decided by public votes, the Best Theme, Best Design and Best Printing by specialists’ votes, and the Best Participant decided by the organizing committee. The results of the poll are announced at the annual awarding ceremony. The list of this year’s winners is as follows: Best Stamp: Germany’s Yacht, Vietnam’s 54 Nations, Cuba’s 45th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and Cuba; Best Sheet: Ukraine’s The 60th Anniversary of Victory in World War II, Singapore’s 200th Anniversary of H. C. Andersen’s Birth, Mongolia’s The Shenzhou VI Space Flight; Best Theme: Ukraine’s To Help their Children, Brazil’s Protection of the Fish that Spawns in the Golden River, Czech’s The Fate of the Drawing “Moonscape” by Petr Ginz; Best Design: Croatia’s Insects, Russia’s Treasures of Sarmat, Austria’s The National Flower―Edelweiss; Best Printing: Germany’s Yacht, Canada’s Rare Animal―Canada-China Joint Issue (sheet), Peru’s 100th Anniversary of Extinction of the Andes Turkey (sheet); Best Participant: the post authorities of 21 countries including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Cyprus, Denmark, DPRK, Malta, Nepal, San Marino and Zimbabwe.

The Foreign Stamp Exhibition and the Foreign Stamp Festival began on the same day.

In his speech, President Chen Haosu said, the Best Foreign Stamp Annual Poll has become an innovative activity of cultural exchanges between the Chinese philately and other countries. During the recent five years, more and more nongovernmental and governmental organizations joined in this activity. We have effectively cooperated with the cultural and postal departments of many countries in planning and designing stamps with the theme of Sino-foreign friendship, which plays a unique role in promoting cultural exchanges between China and other countries. The CPAFFC will continue the efforts to do a good job of participating and organizing the Best Foreign Stamp Poll as an innovation in its work.