Shangrila

2010: Shangrila

When the China Daily newspaper published its list of "Top 10 Fairylands in Yunnan Province" saying that Yunnan has some of the most magical and diverse scenery in all of China, the Meri Snow Mountains came in at Number 8.   The view shown on the Commemorative Sheet is possibly the most famous with the peaks bathed in the golden light of sunrise. Also known as the Prince of Snow Mountain or the 13 Prince Peaks by the locals, these are the highest (over 6,000 metres) of the mountains in the range. Lying on the boundary between Yunnan and Tibet they are also a place of pilgrimage for Tibetan Buddhists. The China Daily describes the area thus
"The crystal glacier extreme from the peak all the way to the forest area an altitude of 2700 metres which forms the most spectacular low latitude monsoonal oceanic glacier in the world. A streak of scarlet light pierced the dark clouds, revealing over 50 steep snowcapped summits, shining, dazzling and thrusting into the clouds like golden swords"

2004: "Frontier Scenes of China"

   Covering a land area of 9.6 million square kilometre stretching from the Pamirs in Central Asia to the western part of the Pacific, temperate zones and tropical, what a diversity of scenery is China. This sheet's theme is areas on the frontiers of China but slap bang in the middle is The Gate of Heavenly Peace, the south entrance to the Forbidden City which although tourists throng the area today in past times it was indeed a forbidden frontier for the majority of the population.  The stamps show (and the Chinese always helpfully number their stamps), going clockwise from the top right

12.1 - Forest of Xing'an Mountain
12.2 - Lake in the Yalu River Basin
12.3 - Reefs in the Yellow Sea
12.4 - Zhoushan Archipelago
12.5 - The coastline of Taiwan
12.6 - Xisha Islands
12.7 - Karst Landscape in Southern Yunnan
12.8 - Rain Forest in Southern Yunnan
12.9 - Mount Qomolangma
12.10 - The Pamirs
12.11 - The Badain Jaran Desert
12.12 - Hulun Buir Steppe

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - "Beautiful Landscapes" here