200 Years Of Salzburg Theatre In Austria

A beautiful vintage First Day Cover from Austria featuring the 200 years of "Salzburg Theatre". The stamp and FDC were issued on 14 November 1975 and is magnificently preserved.

The FDC was sent to me by Mr. Arslan Ali Overstreet from Wild Postcards.
I really loved the stamp and the postmarks on the cover.

Golden Jubilee Celebrations Of Founding Of China - Pak-China Friendship

The year 1999 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1 949-1999). This event is all the more important for the Chinese nation as the whole mankind is on the verge of entering the 21st century.

People’s Republic of China appeared on the map of the world on October 1, 1949, which was the culmination of the glorious struggle of the Chinese people started from the democratic Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen who inspired the resurgence of China.

The Chinese people suffered greatly for more than a century but they never compromised with the status quo and relentlessly struggled against the forces of exploitation. Eventually, they came out victorious under the dynamic leadership of Mao Zedong.

On October 1, 1949, some 300,000 people gathered at theTian’anmen square in Beijing and Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central People’s Government proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The national flag of China is red in colour which symbolizes Revolution, the five stars on the flag symbolize the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the communist party of china (CPC).

The national emblem of China is ‘Tian’ an men in the center illuminated by five stars and encircled by ears of grain and a cogwheel. Tian’anmen symbolizes the Chinese nation and the ears of grain and the cogwheel represent the working class and peasantry.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong and Chou En Lai played a vital role not only to strengthen the roots of the Communist Party of China but also to improve the economic lot of the Chinese people.

Chou En Lai was the chief architect of New China’s foreign policy and led the country with remarkable dexterity and talent, Henry Kissinger described Chou En Lai as “the greatest statesman of our era”.

He was a man of remarkable vision. After gaining for China its rightful place in the UN Security Council in 1971, Chou En Lai recorded yet an other major diplomatic success when in early 1972, he received US President Richard Nixon in Beijing.

The visit led to normalization of relations between China and the United States of America. In this historic reconciliation, Pakistan served as a bridge between the two great nations of the world.

After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, Deng Xiao Ping guided the country and embarked upon a programme of modernization, with economic reconstruction as its priority task.

Deng Xiao Ping was the chief architect of China’s Reform and the opening up drive (1978) to the outside world. Today, the People’s Republic of China is an emerging economic giant in Asia.

Since 1980, China has established special economic zones in Guandong, Fujian and the province of Hainan. In 1984, China opened 14 coastal cities to overseas investment. In 1990, the Chinese government decided to open the Pudong New Zone in Shanghai to overseas investment, which has now become an international economic center.

On July 1,1997, People’s Republic of China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong and proclaimed it a Special Administrative Region under the principle of “ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS”. People’s Republic of China will resume her sovereignty over Macao on 20th December 1999.

Pak-China friendship is unique in the history of the world. Pakistan was one of the first countries, which accorded recognition to People’s Republic of China. The government of Liaquat Au khan vigorously supported the cause of China in the United Nations.

Formal diplomatic relations between Pakistan and China were established on May21, 1951.

Pakistan and China have maintained extremely cordial relations during the last five decades.

China has always extended full co-operation to Pakistan in its developmental projects in agriculture, energy, industry, defence and tele-communications. This is considered a model relationship among two neighboring countries of the Third World.

With the rapidly growing closer relations between the two countries, the exchange of cultural and trade delegations has become more frequent. China fully supports Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir. Likewise, Pakistan has always subscribed to the idea of “One China” policy.

People’s Republic of China is destined to become more vigorous and achieve even greater successes in the next century. It is hoped that bilateral relations between Pakistan and China will further strengthen in the next millennium.

LONG LIVE PAK-CHINA FRIENDSHIP.

To commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebrations Pakistan Post Office is issuing a set of 2 commemorative postage stamps of denomination of Rs 2 and Rs 15 on September 21, 1999.

World Cycling Championship 1972; France

Another wonderful FDC from France is here for you. The FDC commemorates the event of World Professional (Elite) Road Cycling Championship held in Gap - a commune in Southeastern France. GAP is also in the run for hosting 2018 Winter Olympics.

The stamp and the FDC were issued on 22 July 1972. The race consisted of 272.564 km and the best time was 7 hours, 5 minutes and 59 seconds. 89 cyclists started the race but only 42 of them reached the finish line. It was surely a tough one. Isn't it?

Marino Basso of Italy won the Gold medal while his fellow Italian Franco Bitossi got Silver. The third position went to Cyrille Guimard of the host country France.

My sincere Thanks to Jean-Michel for sending me this beautiful FDC from France. 

Breeds Of Dogs Of India: FDC

A very beautiful FDC from India with a set of 4 gorgeous dog stamps. Stamps  featuring 4 different breeds of dogs include following:-

• Himalayan Sheep Dog (Left-most stamp)
• Rampur Hound (2nd stamp from left)
• Mudhol Hound (3rd stamp from left)
• Rajapalayam (Right-most stamp)

The 4 dog breeds from India are also featured on the left side of the First Day Cover while the postmark features only three of them.Which one is missing is hard to tell..... At least for me... :)

The series of stamps on Indian Breeds of Dogs was released at the5th National Dog Show of the Kenel Club of India in Chennai on 9 January 2005. The postmarks on the cover are from the capital -New Delhi.

Indeed a magnificent cover! Isn't it? What do you say???

Pakistan FDC: 50 Years Of Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Wah, 2001

Here is a beautiful First Day Cover (FDC) from Pakistan. The FDC was issued on 28 December 2001 on the eve of 50th Anniversary of Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Wah, Pakistan. The beautiful stamp falls into the military stamps category depicting charging infantry, moving tanks and various products of Pakistan Ordnance Factories including arms andammunition ofvarious calibres and weapons. 

The beautiful postmark used to cancel the FDC shows the monograms of three services of Pakistan namely Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy. The top centre monogram is of Pakistan Army. It shows two crossed swords with an increasing crescent and a star onthe top. The bottom right monogram is of Pakistan Air Force depicting a flying falcon and a star on top; where as on the bottom left is the monogram of Pakistan Navy featuring an anchor in the middle and a crescent and a star on top.

Brief History Of Pakistan Ordnance Factories:-

During their colonial rule in India, the British raised 16 Ordnance Factories. At the time of creation of Pakistan in 1947, we were unlucky that all the sixteen factories fell to Indian share. Newly created Pakistan with fragile state apparatus and fragmented armed forces had absolutely no arms and ammunition manufacturing facility to meet the security challenges to its sovereignty. 

The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khan Liaqat Ali Khan immediately realized this imbalance and issued directive within four months of creation of Pakistan to establish an ordnance factory to manufacture 303 rifle and its ammunition in Rawalpindi. Subsequently, the foundation stone of four workshops was laid by the second Prime Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Nazim ud din in the small town of Wah in December 1951. This was the first step towards the establishment of mother defence industry in Pakistan.

Today by the grace of God Almighty, Pakistan has fourteen big factories at Wah which are taking care of almost 100% requirements of our armed forces. This modern defence industrial complex, which is the oldest & largest in Pakistan defence production industrial system, later helped many other sister defence production setups to flourish. Resultantly today Pakistan has a reasonably good defence production potential in which Pakistan Ordnance Factories occupy the central position.

France: Munich Olympics 1972

Hello Pals!

I am here after a little absence. I have to show you a beautiful cover from my Olympics collection. It is an official FDC from France marking the event of Munich Olympics 1972 held of course in Munich (ThenWest Germany).

Unfortunately, the event saw a massacre on September 5 by some members belonging to the Black September Organization who broke into the Olympics village and took 11 Israeli athletes hostage in their apartment. They killed two of the athletes in their apartment after fighting back.

Afterwards during a botched German rescue attempt at the military airport of Furstenfeldbruck, where the captors with their hostages had been transferred by helicopter, ostensibly to board a plane bound for another country, all the surviving Israeli hostages were killed by a terrorist who threw a grenade into the helicopter carrying the hostages in one helicopter and another terrorist who sprayed the second helicopter with machine gun fire.

The games were suspended for some time but the Olympics committee decided that "the Games must go on". Competition resumed a day later.

The 1972 Munich Olympics were officially named as Games of the XXOlympiad. The official motto of the games was "The Happy Games". The emblem of the Games was a blue solar logo (the "Bright Sun"). The Olympic mascot, the dachsund "Waldi", was the first officially-named Olympic mascot.

France finished in 17th position in the final medal rankings, with two gold medals(Cycling, Men's 1000m Sprint and Sailing, Men's Finn) and 13 medals overall. Pakistan also competed in the event and managed to win a silver medal in Men's Field Hockey Team Competition.

I think that this particular cover was issued during the torch relay of Olympics. Can anyone put me wise on this issue? The FDC was sent to me by M. Chapeau Jean-Michel from France. Thanks Michel for such a nice cover.