Hi ! I received nice covers of 11.11.11 from my friends. I am publishing some here and shall publish more in next post. Many many thanks to all of you for these very special covers !!
Latvia
EN Limaski, Riga - Latvia
Finland
Sender has not written name. Plz send email me if u see this post..
Israel
Eli Moallem’ Jerusalem - Israel
Croatia
Zeljko Vasilik., Topolovac - Croatia
Kiru Naidoo. Musgrave – South Africa
Many thanks to all of you !!
Club News
China 2011 Asian Stamp Exhibition
FIAP exhibition at China was one of the most awaited event of the year, one because it was the last exhibition of the year and secondly China as a philatelic market has been evolving very rapidly over the years. And my experience of it was quite similar.
L to R Prof VK Gupta, Bartoc, Pradip Jain, Yogesh Kumar
China as a nation has the capacity to outshine the world when it comes to staging event in a grand way like Beijing Olympics, Shanghai expo and Stamp exhibition at Wuxi was no different.
Wuxi.......does the name ring a bell.....I am sure many Indians are not familiar with the town or heard its name before. I was puzzled myself about whereabouts of the city before I applied for the booth.
Exhibition Centre
Transit form Shanghai airport to the exhibition hall in Wuxi and clearance from the customs took almost the entire day. Even though the entire process was not smooth but I was amazed to see the warmth in the hospitality of the Chinese. College and post graduate students who were versatile in both mandarin and English assisted us quite efficiently.
I was amazed to see the exhibition hall, it was massive and well lit. The interiors of the hall was better than the exterior. China Post and China National Philatelic had installed most beautiful stands highlighting the Chinese culture and postal heritage. It mesmerized me how much Chinese lay importance to impress the foreigners.
Phila Art Booth
The opening ceremony was very well organized and foreign booth holders and other dignitaries were given free bus service between official hotel and exhibition centre.
The exhibition hall had two parts one side was for the exhibitors and the other for domestic and foreign booth holders and postal departments. It was conveniently and intelligently done by separating the exhibitor side from the noise and crowd of the booths.
The exhibition showcased some of the best collection from all streams of Philately - thematics, aero-philately, postal history, traditional etc. These provided for an excellent source of knowledge and experience for the visitors. The exhibition hall also had many wide screens which showed videos to the local visitors explaining them about philately and few rare collections which were displayed in court of honour.
The booth holders side was no less in excitement, with the major bulk of the crowd coming in to treat themselves with beautiful stamps and other philatelic souvenirs. Over all, I was amazed to see the keen interest that Chinese had for the hobby of philately and how fast the hobby is catching up with the rest of the country. Unlike India, where hobby is in dire straits, it is quite likely that China is going to emerge as the new Philatelic powerhouse in the coming decades replacing Europe.
A special mention to Asian Thematic Philately Society whose founding ceremony I was honoured to attend, showcases the love of Chinese for thematic philately and the level of knowledge. Its founding ceremony was organized in a community hall in the city of Wuxi where we witnessed some local collections put up for display. Eminent thematic philatelist from other Asian countries like Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mongolia, Malaysia, China etc. convened the event. I was honoured to speak in the event as a representative from India on my collection. For Chinese thematic philately, with new and young philatelists coming with new ideas and concept - only sky is the limit. There is a well organized national philatelic association which helps young philatelists enhance and develop their collection by conducting regular seminars, meetings and exhibitions. I wonder with amazement about the quality of Chinese collections which we are going to witness in the coming years.
Finally, I was immensely glad to come over to China and participate in the exhibition,which was a great experience and learning for me. I also wish to pay my gratitude to the the China Post, Chinese customs and above all to Chinese people for their generosity and hospitality.
- Pragya Kothari
- Phila Art | Director| P.O.Box 128, Mithapur | Patna - 800001 | India |
- Email - philaart@ymail.com; philapragya@gmail.com |
- M: +919709638790 | O : +916122215929 |
