German Offices In China Reply Cards

Got this beauty in the mail today. It's a piece of postal stationery from the German Offices in China (Mi P12). What makes it unusual is the usage. First, a little background...

In the late 19th century, Germany had a leased protectorate in Kiautschou, China. It's capital was the city of Tsingtau. Surrounding the leased territory was a 50km neutral zone. Within the protectorate and the neutral zone, postage of German Kiautschou was used.

At the same time, German had post offices throughout the major cities of China (the non-leased part). These postal agencies used postage of the German Offices Abroad in China.

From 1899-1904, the Schantung Railroad was constructed to connect Tsingtau (in Kiautschou) with Tsinanfu (in China). As new stations were established along the line, the Germans opened postal agencies in the stations. This presented a problem, however -- the Chinese objected to the opening of new German post offices in the non-leased territories.


Post offices along the Shingtau Railroad

To work around this problem, the new, "provisional" postal agencies in the no-leased portions of the railroad were given double-ring cancelers which where to be used on the mail, but not on the stamps themselves. The stamps would be canceled on the trains using the official railroad cancelers, which were permitted by the Chinese.



This postal stationery card was initially canceled by the provisional post office in Tschoutsun, China. It was then officially canceled on Train #1 (ZUG 1) of the Tsingtau-Weihsien line on 7 December 1903. It arrived at the Weihsien post office the same day.

The following day, the reply card portion was canceled at Weihsien, China. It was then marked with an arrival cancel at Tschoutsun.

This card is a particular rarity because it bears not only a fairly unusual Tsingtau-Weihsien Bahnpost cancel, but two rare Tschoutsun provisional cancels. The Tschoutsun provisional cancel was only used for 2 months, and is the rarest of the provisional railroad post office cancels.

Not bad for a bargain pickup on ebay. Anyone speak Mandarin?

All I can say is 'Wow'.
I know very little about this area (my great uncle was in the CEF and sent a series of postcards back to his sister, my grandmother), but you have described the background and situation very well, and because of the tight time frame you have picked up some interesting material.

The card to Weihsien (Pinyin Weixian) is addressed to a Mr Ting Chenlan (Pinyin Ding Chenlan) simply at 'Weihsien'.

The other card is more problematic. It's addressed to a Mr Mei Yuhan (same in Pinyin) at 'Kucheng' (Pinyin 'Gucheng'). Now, 'Kucheng' isn't a place name: it simply means 'old town' or 'high street'. I did find a Google reference to Zhoucun (Pinyin for 'Tschoutsun') 'Old Town' in a tourist blurb, so it's possible Kucheng/Old Town was sufficient address to get the card to Mr Mei.

The handwriting on both cards is very similar, and I'd bet written by the same person. It's blessedly clear and neat, and very easy to read. Someone has taken care over it - almost comparable to printing English.

Wonderful piece Postmaster

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Dianne

Looks like the card was created by a fellow philatelist. I recently found another at auction with the same sender, in the same handwriting, mailed along the same route, on the same day, to a different recipient.

The sender of these cards must have sent quite a few. I recently picked up a third card at auction. This one's not a reply card, but it's the same handwriting, on the same train, same date as the previous two, and it's addressed to the same individual as the non-reply portion of the second card shown above.

Received another one of these in the mail today.

Wow - good background study - beautiful and most interesting stuff . Thanks for sharing with us, PostmasterGS.
Now that you've got the cards duplicated, please feel free to send me the ones you do not need...