British post offices in China

The British post offices in China were a system of post offices set up by the United Kingdom in various treaty ports of China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As a consequence of the Treaty of Nanking of 1842-08-29 Great Britain opened five consular postal agencies on 1844-04-16. Another five were opened later.

* Amoy (1844), Cancelled "A1" 1866-1885; "D27" from 1876-1885
* Canton (1844), Cancelled "C1" 1866-1885
* Foochow (1844), Cancelled "F1" 1866-1885
* Ningpo (1844), Cancelled "N1" 1866-1885
* Shanghai (1844), Cancelled "S1" 1866-1885
* Swatow (1861), Cancelled "S2" 1866-1885
* Hankow (1872), Cancelled "D29" 1879-1885
* Kiungchow (1873), Cancelled "D28" 1876-1885
* Tientsin (1882)
* Chefoo (1903)

Initially letters were simply bagged in these cities and carried to Hong Kong, where they were cancelled "B62"; later (1860s/70s) each office received its own postmarking devices.

Postage stamps of Hong Kong were used from 1862 on, but after 1 January 1917 the Hong Kong stamps were overprinted "CHINA". The initial overprinting including 16 values ranging from 1 cent to 10 dollars; from 1922 on, an additional 10 values with the Multiple Script CA watermark were also overprinted.

All of the offices were closed on 30 November 1922

The settlement at Wei-Hai-Wei was a leasehold rather than a treaty port. It was occupied on 1898-05-24, and mail franked with the Wei-Hai-Wei local was carried to Chefoo by Cornébé and Co. for onward processing. This lasted until the Chinese Liu Kung Tau Post Office was opened in March 1899, and it was in turn replaced by a British post office on 1899-09-01. A second British Post Office was opened at Port Edward in 1904. Hong Kong stamps overprinted "CHINA" continued in use in both offices until the settlement was given up on 1930-10-01.

Sources

* Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
* Robson Lowe, "The Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps", Vol. 3, Pt. 3, London, Robson Lowe Ltd., 1949. Reprinted as Volume 40 of "Billig's Philatelic Handbook", pp.468-477.
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/home.html Encyclopaedia of Postal History]
* Wellsted, Rossiter, and Flower, "The Stamp Atlas" (Facts on File, 1986), pp. 257-258