China 2009

Exhibition Report by Dingle Smith, Australian Commissioner

China 2009 was held from 10 - 16 April 2009 in the historic city of Luoyang situated in the fertile floodplain of the Yellow River in Henan Province.  The dates were selected to coincide with a long-established annual show devoted to peonies. For those fortunate enough to attend it was a world show that set standards that will be very hard to match.  The exhibition venue was a magnificent new building destined to become the new National Museum.  The architecture inside and out was outstanding with marble floors, escalators and cafeteria.  The opening ceremony, which combined both stamps and peonies, was staged in a 50,000 seat sports stadium built for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The two-hour long entertainment relayed across China on national television included Sarah Brightman who also sang at the Beijing Games and the Hong Kong personality Jacky Chan.  There were also massed dancing displays often with several hundred on stage at the one time among these were the famous Shaolin martial arts performers who temple base is close to Luoyang.

Continuing the Olympic theme there were 1500 distinctively attired volunteers at the exhibition and Commissioners and Jurors were each allocated their own personal assistant.  The majority of the volunteers were university students selected for their language skills.

The most impressive feature however was the number of visitors to the show, reliably estimated to be between 400,000 and 600,000.  The surprise was that their focus was on viewing the philatelic material on display with the crowds at the frames exceeding those at the dealers and postal agencies stands.  Queues to view the British Royal Collection entailed a wait of between 2 to 4½ hours.  Inevitably some arrangements went astray, one instance was that there was no provision for exhibitors who attended the exhibition and at short notice the City of Louyang generously announced that they would pay for tickets for all Large Gold and Gold awardees to attend the Palmares but there was a problem in actually acquiring the tickets.  However foreign visitors would do well to remember that the language used throughout the show was English and all exhibits were written up in English.  Just imagine the reverse with a FIP show in a English-speaking country where everything was in Chinese!

The lasting memories of China 2009 however are of the hospitality and ever-smiling crowds of Chinese visitors and the local citizens.  If was clear from both exhibition events and from the many Chinese exhibits that progress of all aspects of our hobby in the world's most populous nation has over the last two decades has been so dramatic.  China Post, the City of Luoyang and FIP all deserve high praise for staging such a memorable event and to FIAP who has now firmly established the region's reputation worldwide for such notable philatelic exhibitions.

Australia was represented by 12 exhibits comprising 74 frames of multi-frame entries and a literature entry.  This places us among the top twelve among the eighty nations represented at China 2009.  The Asia-Pacific Exhibitor (Volume 21, 2008) was entered in the Literature Class (Philatelic Magazines and Periodicals) and was awarded a Vermeil medal (80 marks).  There were 37 entries in this Class and only two scored a higher mark.  In addition Malcolm Groom was Secretary to the Jury (which had some 50 jurors), Ray Todd and Ross Duberal were Jury members and Ian McMahon was an Apprentice Juror in the Postal Stationery Class.

It was my privilege to be the Australian Commissioner with Ian acting as Assistant Commissioner.  The Australian exhibitors and their awards are listed below with John Sinfield and Arthur Gray receiving Special Prizes for their entries.  The exhibits of Ross Wood and John Fletcher were entered for the first time in a FIP show.  

Arthur Gray	The Stamp Booklets of Australia 1904-1973  [Traditional - 8 frames]	Gold [94] +SP
Gordon Monk	Australian King George V 1d Surface Printed Varieties  [Traditional - 8 frames]	Vermeil [83]
Gary Brown	From British Colony to People's Republic  [Traditional - 5 frames]	Large Vermeil [85]
Jeff Trinidad	Latvia 1918-1922  [Traditional - 5 frames]	Vermeil [80]
Kevin Nelson	Australian Commonwealth Postal Rates 1901-1941  [Postal History - 8 frames]	Gold [90]
Ben Palmer	The Postal Rates of Victoria  [Postal History - 8 frames]	Gold [91]
John Sinfield	Australian Postal Cards to 1959  [Postal Stationery - 8 frames]	Large Gold [95] +SP
Ross Wood	Czechoslovakia Airmails 1918-1940  [Aerophilately - 5 frames]	Vermeil [82]
Boon Swee Yen	Malayan Airmails 1919-1942  [Aerophilately - 8 frames]	Gold [93]
Christopher Malam	Birds and their Habitats: Australia and Territories  [Youth - 4 frames]	Large Silver [77]
NAPE	The Asia Pacific Exhibitor Vol 21, 2008  [Literature]	Vermeil [80]
John Fletcher	Cape of Good Hope  [Revenues - 5 frames]	Large Silver [75]

More information about the exhibition can be found on the show’s website www.luoyang2009.cn.