China 2009

Huge crowds at China 2009

Vast numbers attended the world stamp exhibition held at Luoyang in China on April 10 to 16, 2009. Although the final attendance figure is not known, it is likely to be around 750,000. Many of those who attended wished to catch a glimpse of eight pages from The Royal Philatelic Collection, but had to queue for up to five hours for the privilege. Nor can it be said that the large visitor numbers were caused by those buying the new issues from China Post, as these were sold from special booths outside the exhibition hall.

The exhibition was held in the recently completed new building of Luoyang Museum, with the dealers and special presentations by the China National Philatelic Corporation and stamp printers on the ground floor, and the competitive exhibits on the first floor. Both floors were always packed, and there were continually crowds viewing the frames, the particular favourite being the thematic entries.

The British exhibitors did particularly well, with the following results being achieved.

Large Gold medal and candidate for the Grand Prix International

Alan Holyoake – Development and Use of the First Postage Stamps

Gold medals

Graham Booth – The first 35 years of the Cayman Islands Post Office 1889-1923

Alan Huggins – Great Britain – Pre-stamped Telegraph Forms and Cards 1870-1954

Peter Motson (plus Special Prize) – Newfoundland Airmail Stamps and Flown Airmails 1919-1948

Brian Sole – Go by cycle!

Arthur Woo – Mexico: The 1856-66 ‘Hidalgo’ and ‘Eagle’ issues

Large Vermeil medals

Clive Akerman – The Revenue Stamps of Peru

Peter Cockburn – Revenue and Judicial Stamps of the Straits Settlements

John Dahl – Revenues of Macau from 1879

David Hunter – Sugar

Roger Lawson – Portuguese India – The Classic Issue

Edward Proud – Intercontinental Airmails, Volume 1: Transatlantic and Pacific (Literature)

Vermeil medal

Clive Akerman – The Revenue Journal (Literature)

The winners of the three Grand Prix were:

D’Honneur – Tay Peng Hian – Netherlands East Indies 1655-1870

International – Karnasuta Charnchai – Development of Early Post Office in Siam (1880-1909)

National – Wei Gang – China: The Postal History of Mongolia (1841-1921).