Postcrossing Blog

The Little Mail Carriers have written home again! Turns out they’ve been enjoying a relaxed time in Tianjin, China! Read all about their adventures on this post from their host fitziane.

Ni hao, everyone, hello from China! We have spent a couple of lovely months in Tianjin, a dynamic city about an hour and a half away from Beijing. Our host family’s mom and dad work at an international school in China. She’s the elementary librarian and he heads the PE department. We spent our time living the expat life and enjoying family life.

Our very first weekend we went camping. Our host family, the Fitzgeralds, love the outdoors and we went camping twice during our stay. The first trip was to Yunmengshan.

This is a beautiful forest in the mountains north of Beijing. There are quiet mountain paths and lots and lots of trees and plenty of wonderful fresh air. (Although we can’t complain of the city air. October is the best month for air quality in Tianjin and we had many beautiful clear days. Still, there’s no beating fresh mountain air.) Camping was a lot of fun, although a bit of work, especially for people our size.

After setting up camp, we went exploring. The stream that ran past our camping site provided endless opportunities for splashing and wading. We didn’t get too wet, which was a good thing, because there was definitely a chill in the air in the shadows of the forest. Little Paulo, of course, had to swing from the trees like Tarzan and he kept looking at the water as if to calculate the size of the white water raft he’d need.

Going back to the city was good. We were happy to spend time with our librarian friend at her school. So many eager students come into the library every day. Libraries are wonderful!

During our month in the city, we did the usual tourist stuff. We went to Ancient Culture Street in Tianjin, among other places. This is a market that has grown around a Buddhist temple. About 5 years ago, the whole market was torn down and refurbished to give market vendors modern facilities, but the ancient character was kept. The market itself is very much a tourist site, with people come from all over the countryside surrounding Tianjin to visit. The temple was very busy, with many people lighting incense at the different altars.

The best part of our trip, though, was camping at the foot of the Great Wall of China. The first week of October is a national holiday in China, as the country celebrates its founding anniversary. We took advantage of the holiday to go for a long weekend with 6 families and camp at Jingshanlin.

The Great Wall was built by China’s first emperor to protect China from the Mongols in the north. The aim of the emperor was to have a wall stretching from Lop Lake in the west to Shanghaiguan in the east. It was to be 6 horses wide at the top and 8 horses wide at the bottom (or something like that. We read a book about it in the school library.)

There were to be watchtowers every 100 meters. The emperor sent a million people to build it. Many died and are buried in the wall. The conditions must have been brutal. It took 10 years to build, but subsequent emperors built different parts of it. The part we were on, Jingshanlin, was built during the Ming dynasty, only 500 years ago.

Click here for more photos of the Great Wall from our host.

We’ve had a great time in China and although we’re sad to go, we’re eager to continue with our adventures. We wish you all great happiness and good fortune.

Thank you fitziane for this lovely report! Now we wonder where the little ones will show up next…

On the last post, we mentioned the new stamp from the Dutch postal service featuring Postcrossing, which was launched this past Saturday on the Postex event.

Paulo gave a short presentation about the project, and received the first sheet of stamps from the hands of Berend Dorgelo, from PostNL.

Designer Garech Stone, from the Stone Twins, also gave the audience some insights about the design process, and shared some “easter eggs” hidden in the stamps! For instance, can you find the suited monkey with a gun? :)

As part of the stamp launch, PostNL is organising a contest where Dutch postcrossers can win a travel voucher of 500 euros, if they use the stamps on their Postcrossing cards. To participate, have a look at the contest page.

Once again, our heartfelt thank you to PostNL, Raymond68 and all the people who were involved in the process of making this dream come true!

This was a big step in our postcard revolution, and we look forward to collaborating with other postal services in the future! :)

Yes, you read that right! On October 14th, PostNL will launch a real stamp, featuring Postcrossing! How awesome is that?

For us, it’s a huge honour that the project was deemed worthy of being featured in a stamp, and we’re very grateful to PostNL (the Dutch postal service) for making this dream come true. We’d also like to thank postcrosser Raymond68 – the Postcrossing stamp exists because of his efforts and persistence.

The stamp was designed by Garech and Declan Stone, and features all kinds of traditional postcards strewn about, as if scattered on your doormat. Here is what the stamp sheet looks like:

Neat, right? There are several different stamps, both for Europe and the rest of the world, featuring the traditional postcard motives.

The first stamps will be delivered to Paulo on October 15th, during the Postex event in Apeldoorn. Postex is an annual event for philatelic collectors, featuring celebrating associations, youth philately, traders from home and abroad, foreign postal administration(s), Day of the Stamp, exhibitions and much more.

If you’re in the area, come and say hi! There will be plenty of stamps for sale, and we’ll have a small presentation about Postcrossing around 10:30am.

We’ll be back on the weekend with more information about the stamp, and also to give away a few sheets! :)

Today on the spotlight we feature bodrumlu (aka İbrahim), from Turkey. He’s an avid gamer and loves his first place on Turkey’s ranking of postcrossers!

Here is what he had to say:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

In 2008, when I was a very active member of CouchSurfing, I had been looking for some websites to exchange postcards and stamps. I had seen a topic about postcards on that website and one of users mentioned Postcrossing. I clicked the link given on that topic and that’s how I met your mother… oops! I meant how I met Postcrossing! :)
Since then, I’ve been sending postcards through Postcrossing no matter where I am, or what I am doing.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Apart from collecting postcards, stamps and coins from all over the world (which are very rare hobbies here), I like solving puzzles and playing strategy games. I am an avid player of Age of Empires and the Red Alert series! I also like swimming and playing chess.
“Self-improvement” is the key point of my life, therefore I like to read related books and watching documentaries about the lives of successful men. As part of my self-improvement program, I also love to go to gym even though I am a one-handed disabled man. I have even designed a special glove to let me use the lat pulldown machine. There is an old saying: “as long as you breath, there is a solution for every problem, just keep looking for it”.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is me, going to send my postcards:

And this is where I keep my postcards. Looks very tidy, doesn’t it?

Here you can see my post office, the last stop for my cards :)

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

Here are some of my recent favourite postcards:

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Yes, there have been some places I was surprised when I’ve seen the address on the card. For example, Papua New Guinea, Montenegro, Mauritius, Macau, Iraq, Ecuador and Bermuda (I didn’t even know there was such country!)

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes, I have organised a meeting in the most beautiful city Eskişehir (my hometown). We were a small group but we had a great time altogether. You can have a look at the meeting pics on the forum. I have also personally met countess_ofdark.

What is it your favuorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Going up and up in the top rank list! Well, not that exciting anymore as I’m the first on the list (just kidding!)
Well… the moment when you wait to show up a “random” address that you send a card. I have even been praying for “please God, not China this time” because of their very long addresses, but now I print addresses, so not a problem anymore! :)
To be honest I really enjoy every moment of the process, from writing the postcard ID to receiving a “thank you for your beautiful postcard” message :)

This week, the US Postal Service announced that it will start to honor living people in its stamps, in hopes of increasing public engagement with snail mail.

Up until now, only deceased people were considered to be featured on their stamps, but this recent measure opens the door to a world of new possibilities…

So we wanted to ask you: which living person would you like to see featured on a stamp, and why?