Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition Philatelic Passport

I was arranging my philatelic properties when I spied upon the Philatelic Passport from the Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition. A philatelic passport is a folder or booklet that is created in conjunction with stamp exhibitions so that visitors, enthusiasts and otherwise, could go on a treasure hunt to collect stamps of various nations to fill up the blank spots of the passport. This not only give visitors a chance to engage themselves in an immersive activity but also helped generate extra income for the stamps traders.

For me that was the first time I engaged in such activity so naturally I was excited to get started. The booth to get the appropriate nation's stamp is marked next to the nation's slot in the passport to help hunters get the stamp easily. With my passport in hand, I started going around to find the relevant booths, each offering various stamps from the nation for my selection and a cancellation after I applied it to my passport.

Travel through Philately - The First Currency of United Arab Emirates (Emirates Post)

I have wanted to add some Middle Eastern first day covers into my collection but had been reluctant to pay a premium in eBay for it. Fortunately Emirates Post manned one of the booths in Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition, and I got myself a few remaining ones. One of those sets depicted the first set of United Arab Emirate's (UAE) currency - the UAE dirham.

UAE'S first set of banknotes, featuring AED 1, AED 5, AED 10, AED 50, AED 100 and AED 1000.

UAE's first set of coins, featuring 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 fils, and 1 dirham.

Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition

My first ever stamp exhibition visit coincided with Singapore's grand celebration of its 50th birthday, making this year's visit a memorable one. It is an honor for the nation to host this high profile philatelic event, which gathered showcases spanning 66 countries and trade booths from various nations for collectors to fuel their obsession. The decennial exhibition was last hosted by Singapore 20 years ago (in 1995), and is held with the full support and patronage of the Federation Internationale de Philatelie (FIP) and under the auspices of Federation of Inter-Asian Philately (FIAP), so it is natural for this exhibition to gather postal authorities and philatelic traders from different corners of the world.

The last time Singapore hosted the World Stamp Exhibition was 1995, and they returned to the position to coincide with the nation's 50th birthday.

Travel through Philately - The Silk Road 丝绸之路 (China National Philatelic Corporation)

Continuing my stretch of First Day Covers of China themed philately, I uncovered another of my collection - The Silk Road, coinciding with my recent fascination with the trade route made famous by the journals of Marco Polo. This is a 2012 issued cover, and unlike the previous sharing of the Grand Canal cover, I managed to collect the full set this time.

The 4 stamps depict different topics, namely "Millenia-Old Capital" 千年帝国 (description of Xi'an), "Magnificent Pass in the Desert" 大漠雄关 (describing the relentless desert scenery), "Mysterious Kingdom" 神秘故国 (describing lost kingdoms of the Silk Road), and "Extraordinary Scenery of the Western Regions" 西域胜景 (describing the wild beauty of Central Asia).

The miniature sheet, titled "Exchange" 交流, shows the epic Kumtag Desert of Dunhuang 敦煌 with the entrance to Mogao Caves (莫高窟) and an inset stamp of preserved Buddhist artwork.

Travel through Philately - Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal 京杭大运河 (China National Philatelic Corporation)

Seems like I am on a grand tour of China with my collection of China themed First Day Covers. I just bought myself a set of 6 FDCs on one of China's ancient architectural marvel that is inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List - the Grand Canal. Although I have heard of the name, I am quite unfamiliar with its history and significance so I decided to explore further online.

Like the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canal was a feat of civil engineering marvel - longest wall in the case of Great Wall, longest artificial river in the Grand Canal's case. Both were built and connected in different eras, lasted throughout the ages into the modern world, and were first breathed life in the riotous Spring and Autumn Period (春秋时期). 

Lantern Lighting Pagoda 雷峰塔

Travel through Philately - Old Town of Li Jiang 丽江古城 (Hong Kong Post)

I shared the 3rd from a Hong Kong Post series on World Heritage in China here, and had the first here, so where is the 2nd? Here it is!

There is still no lack of beautiful scenery in China despite the pollution as a result of their industrialization, and one of them was the Old Town of Li Jiang. Even though there were redevelopments targeted at wooing tourists, enough of the original remnants remained to exude an atmosphere of a historical town.

Hong Kong Post's World Heritage in China series #2: Old Town of Li Jiang

Travel through Philately - China Dan Xia 中国丹霞 (Hong Kong Post)

The long hiatus from my last philately post left me with considerable time to arrange and catalogue my collection. From within the collection I found another of Hong Kong Post's Mainland Scenery Sites series - this is the third of the collection, focusing on the colorful landscape of China Danxia (丹霞). And it is by preparing this post that I learned a crucial misunderstanding which I had held for quite some time.

Travel through Philately - Ancient Town of Feng Huang 鳳凰古城 (Macao Post)

After my last Macao Post article on its 5th Mainland Scenery series, Watchtowers of Kaiping (開平碉樓), I got interested in the series and hunted for its predecessor, an FDC featuring a scenery much more intact than the crumbling UNESCO Heritage. The focus in this issue is the ancient water town of Feng Huang (鳳凰古城), a city named after the legendary Phoenix.

This 2011 issue portrayed Feng Huang Ancient City, a town built in a harmonious blend between water and earth.

Travel through Philately - Cocos (Keeling) Islands Australia - 50 Years of Stamps

Cocos Islands has as interesting a geography as Christmas Island - they are both part of Australia yet they are nearer to the Indonesian archipelago than the mainland, the latter more so than the former, and larger. Although the island inhabitants, mainly Cocos Malay, maintained a western culture, there are extensive influences from Malaysia and Indonesia due to their proximity. Historically, their geographical location had them placed under the administration of Straits Settlements, which included Penang, Singapore and Malacca, after their annexation by the British Empire in 1857. The islands' control transferred to Australia on 23 November 1955.

Travel through Philately - Old Maps of Singapore

Google Map and GPS undoubtedly changed the way we viewed our world - through satellite captured images digitally rendered and overlaid to show different information at the beck and call of a click. Looking back at history, the digital world did not come into the household and consumer's hand before the 90s, and most household could not afford one until the turn of the millennium. To see how our predecessors read a map would be the reason I collected this particular FDC, one which showed the old maps of Singapore as drawn by cartographers of the past.

This FDC has an antique look about it, trying its best to simulate the feel of old parchment with those brownish patches randomly placed on the cover.

Travel through Philately - Battle of Jersey

The Channel Islands are an interesting place in the geopolitical sense. Situated close to the European mainland and off the coast of France, historically they had been a thorn and a threat to the French government. One of the islands, Jersey was of strategic importance in any war between England and France due to its proximity to the French coast. And so there would be little surprise that the French would like to take the island away and pack into their own pocket. However the English were aware of that as well, and fortified the island heavily, packing heavy punches into the defenses of the island in order to disabuse the French of that very notion, which is why in history, this Battle of Jersey was the only major attempt by the French to invade the island.

The FDC commemorating the bicentennial victory of the Jersey troops against the French invaders 200 years ago. The stamps are taken from a partial copy from John Singleton Copley's oil painting, The Death of Major Peirson.

Travel through Philately - Marina Bay Skyline

Stepping on the soil of Singapore, the trio of vertical pillars of Marina Bay Sands would be a sight to seek out for. The photogenic hotel cum shopping mall cum casino was thus named because of the bay it sat on, a piece of land that did not exist prior to the 1970s. While the famous building seek the most attention, it did not dominate the skyline alone. This recent issue of FDC featured three other buildings which shared the same fame with Marina Bay Sands, and which all are in the vicinity of the bay.

The FDC issued in May showed 4 featured buildings of Marina Bay, each one of them dominating one of the stamps.

Travel through Philately - Chen Wen Hsi

Sometimes you do learn from philatelic collections. I do not know how to appreciate art the way the experts do, judging a work with abstract lines and unseen patterns, all hidden behind patchworks of color, to be a work of art. And if left along that line of thought, I may have missed one of the great artists of Singapore - Chen Wen Hsi (陈文希). An FDC I purchased introduced me to this master of the arts, commemorating the reception of a posthumous Meritorious Service Medal by the deceased master. 

A 1993 FDC commemorating the award of Meritorious Service Award to Chen Wen Hsi posthumously.

Travel through Philately - Classic Locomotive of Northern Ireland

There is a charm with locomotives which I couldn't point or shake off. Especially the old timers. They captured my full attention when I was a kid and as they passed in front of me, the little boy in me watched with awe how they thundered past with a might that automobiles just couldn't compete against. I have a number of rail related FDC for my appreciation, one commemorating Singapore's retired train stations (Philately - Singapore's Historical Train Stations) and one for London Underground's centenary (Philately - London Underground). And now I have more.

These chugging reminders of the Northern Ireland's past had long gone out of date, but this FDC kept them immortalized.

Travel through Philately - Hong Kong Delicacies

Nothing makes a nation prouder these days than to present a meal and say "This is from my home! Try it and be amazed!" Of course not everybody would be impressed by every unique food the nation would offer. Take durian for example.

However the delicacies of Hong Kong, influenced by Cantonese cuisine coupled with British colonization, created a wave of frenzy the world over with its allure, with imitations and authenticity claims rising and competing wherever there is a Cantonese restaurant or tea shop. To aid in the spread of Hong Kong delicacies' recognition, Hong Kong Post chose 4 all time favorites to represent Hong Kong's taste and flavor in its FDC.

Hong Kong Post released 2 sets of FDC with the theme of Hong Kong Delicacies in 2012, one with a set of stamps, the other with the same set in a miniature sheet.

Travel through Philately - Singapore National Museum's Centenary

Whether or not you are a keen hunter of past colonial romance in Singapore, its National Museum is a must visit, much more so even than Marina Bay Sands despite the latter's fame as Singapore's latest icon. After all, how many buildings in Singapore could claim to survive both World War and is still in active service, along with its centenary in 1987, just goes to show how ancient it is compared to most of the buildings in the island republic.

This 1987 FDC highlights just how old the National Museum of Singapore is - with a deep brown.

Travel through Philately - Romantic Bounty of Pitcairn Island

Much was shared about Pitcairn Islands in the last article, but the archipelago was tightly bound to the infamous mutiny aboard HMS Bounty, so it makes no sense to share the location without at least highlighting the ship behind that event. And that became my reason for sharing this FDC.

The Bounty was not initially named so. Originally a collier built in 1784 and christened Bethia, it was purchased by the Royal Navy and refitted to be the famed ship in history. Its mission: to gather breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the West Indies in an attempt to grow them there as a cheap food source for the slave labor. William Bligh was recommended as the captain for the newly christened ship, and set sail in 1787 for the journey which never saw the vessel's return.

The beauty of the Bounty was romantically captured in this set of stamps, showing her sailing amidst various backdrops.

Travel through Philately - Pitcairn Islands Definitives

I never knew about the existence of Pitcairn Islands until I chance upon this geographically remote island while researching the postage history of South Pacific islands. Such a remote and unknown location would have remained so were it not for the story of 'Mutiny on H.M.S. Bounty'. The name is not unfamiliar to me, but I never knew that the mutineers inhabited an island after their fiasco (instead of going back to England) and their descendants still do until this day.

FDC portraying the first 4 stamps from a definitive set of 12.

Travel through Philately - Singapore's Historical Railway Stations

Since we are on the track of railway system history, let's get this piece out - SingPost's offer to commemorate the historical railway stations which tirelessly served the nation and her citizens for the past century.

FDC released on 28 February 2013 to commemorate the historical railway stations - Bukit Timah and Tanjong Pagar railway stations.

Travel through Philately - Singapore Mass Rapid Transit System

The sharing of London Underground inevitably led me to recall Singapore's own impressive system of mass rapid transit. Singapore's main reason to build such a system mirrored that of London's albeit the former has a much more urgent need for it. In land scarce Singapore, a projected rise in the number of population will follow with a rise in transportation needs, which buses could not provide adequately.

The FDC from the day when Singapore's MRT commence operation on 12th Mar 1988. Notice that the MRT map depicted in the 10 cents stamp differs a lot from the one that is familiar with us in 2013.