New exhibition features Forbidden City in stamps

A two-month long highlighted exhibition of stamps on the Forbidden City opened for public visit on Tuesday in Beijing.

The Forbidden City, officially known as the Palace Museum today, was China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911. As one of the country's most important cultural landmarks, it has frequently appeared on stamps in the past decades.

The Palace Museum in Stamps: Special Exhibition of Stamps on the Theme of the Palace Museum lifted its curtain in the Zhaigong (Hall of Abstinence) Gallery in the museum with a display of over 1,500 stamps in 52 sets, which have been released since the founding of New China in 1949.

The exhibition was co-organized by the Palace Museum and China Post.

The first stamp featuring the Forbidden City was released in 1953, which portrays a turret of the former imperial palace showing splendor of the architecture. The first stamp on the collection of cultural relics was released in 1982, showing Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasty paintings on folding fans.

In 1998, a set of stamps featuring Taihe Dian (Hall of Supreme Harmony) -- the highest-level architecture within the compound of the Forbidden City -- and the Louvre in Paris was co-released by China and France. It became the first stamp that promoted the Palace Museum for an international occasion.