COVER N.83 - China

Postmark: 2 postmarks Suzhou (?) - 18FEB22 / 20FEB22
Posted on the  18th February on the 16th March
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A cover from China with quite an interesting set of stamps. Thank you so much Xu!

Joint issues usually have the added bonus of presenting the viewer with discovery opportunies on the countries involved, and this was not an exception.

Once again the quality of the handwriting on the address lines made me feel ashamed of my nothing short of cuneiforme handwritting....

The chosen theme for this joint issue was Bridges, something that I think is pretty popular with many philatelists. As usual, I had to resort to Wikipedia to enlighten myself about the beautiful images on the two 1.20 yuan stamps, issued on 11DEC2021.

The stamp on the top of the cover shows the Guangji Bridge on the Han River, East of Chaozhou, in the province of Guangdong, a protected major historic and cultural site.

The present day bridge, spanning 517.95 metres, inherits its location from the past many iterations of this important infrastructure, the first having been built  in 1170 by Zeng Wang, a magistrate of the Song Dinasty as a boat bridge.

The boats were to be replaced over time by pontoons and piers, and the Guangji bridge would end up getting a mix of beam, arch and pontoon bridges features.

A curious charachreristic of the pontoon section is that it can open to let boats cross it.

 The second stamp is illustrated with the image of the Khaju bridge, in Isfahan, Iran.

This 133 metres long bridge  was built circa 1650, in the reign of king Abbas II and it connects both margins of river Zayanderud.

Originally it was used as a teahouse and as well as bridge it also functioned as a weir to regulate the flow of the Zayanderud.

The 50 fen stamp is part of a two stamp set dedicated to Environmental Protection ,issued on 01JAN2004.

This stamp highlights the "prevention and control of desertification", while its companion 4.5 renminbi yuan stamp calls on our attention to the protection of biodiversity.

Of note is the fact that the cover presents two postmarks issued by the same office. One machine applied in red with a 3.5 Yenand a manual cancellation in black,  both applied on the same day.