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Sometimes philately are not only collecting stamps, but also gaining friendship from the four corners of the world. Every time when you got a mail from your postbox, what you get is more than a piece of mail, but a piece of very best regards from your friend thousands of miles away.
Over the course of history,
Huang Tu-shui (1895-1930) was
hands. There is another boy, who is wearing a bamboo hat who
Tczew [tt͡ʂɛf] (German: Dirschau (help·info); Kashubian: Dërszewò) is a town on the Vistula River in Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 60,279 inhabitants (June 2009). It is an important railway junction with a classification yard dating to the Prussian Eastern Railway (German: Preußische Ostbahn). The city is known for its attractive old town and the Vistula Bridge, or Bridge of Tczew, damaged during World War II.
It is the capital of Tczew County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously a town in Gdańsk Voivodeship (1975–1998).
From Wikipedia
The set contains six stamps of different designs in three denominations.
Pottinger Street ($1.40) - The street was originally built from Queen's Road Central up to Hollywood Road. Because of its steep slope, the street was paved entirely with stone slabs, forming steps in an undulating pattern to make it easy for people to go up and down and to drain away stormwater. It is hence also called "Stone Slab Street".
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Wyndham Street (WYN)
Nathan Road ($1.40) - Stretching from Tsim Sha Tsui in the south all the way up to Boundary Street in Mong Kok, Nathan Road is one of the busiest streets in Hong Kong. It runs through the hustling and bustling Yau Tsim Mong District, lit up like a kaleidoscope by neon signs of shops, hotels, shopping arcades and restaurants along the way.
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Mongkok (MGK)
Hollywood Road ($2.40) - Alias "Antique Street", Hollywood Road is lined with antique shops that lend an air of nostalgic elegance. In this treasure trove for antique lovers, a wide range of thrilling items covering ceramics and jade, silk and embroidery, blackwood furniture, paintings and calligraphy are waiting for discerning buyers.
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Sheung Wan (SWN)
Temple Street ($2.40) - For a real taste of Hong Kong culture, there is no better place than Temple Street, the street named after Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. Dubbed "People's Night Market" for its all-time bargains, Temple Street comes alive when the city lights up at dusk. Flocks of visitors linger around open-air stalls offering inexpensive goods, local culinary delights or fortune-telling, and they also enjoy performances of Chinese opera.
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Kowloon Central (KCL)
Des Voeux Road West ($3) - Our famous "Dried Seafood Street", Des Voeux Road West is a traditional marketplace for ginseng products and herbs as well as dried seafood. Clustered with shops selling products such as dried abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin and fish maw as well as Chinese herbal medicines and tonics, the street swarms with locals and visitors shopping for festive goodies when the Lunar New Year is drawing near.
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Sai Ying Pun (SYP)
Stanley Market ($3) - Encompassing Stanley New Street, Stanley Market Road and Stanley Main Street, Stanley Market is a popular tourist attraction in Southern District on Hong Kong Island. Apart from an interesting array of shops and stalls selling clothing and accessories, Chinese paintings and calligraphy, handicrafts and local souvenirs, the place is dotted with bars and restaurants offering a fine selection of world cuisines, making it an ideal choice for leisure travel.
* This cover was sent from the nearest post office related to the stamp : Stanley (STY)
Valaam, also known historically by the Finnish name Valamo, is an archipelago in the northern portion of Lake Ladoga, lying within the Republic of Karelia, Russian Federation. The total area of its more than 50 islands is 36 km². The largest island is also called Valaam. It is best known as the site of the 14th century Valaam Monastery and for its natural beauty.[1] In the 12th century, the islands were a part of the Novgorod Republic. In the 17th century, they were captured by Sweden during the Time of Troubles, but Russia reconquered them less than a century later. When the Grand Duchy of Finland was set up in the early 19th century as an autonomous part of the Russian Empire, Alexander I of Russia made Valaam a part of Finland. In 1917, Valaam became a part of newly independent Finland, but it was acquired by the USSR after the Winter War and Continuation War.
The name of the island is from the Finno-Ugric word valamo, which means the high, mountain, ground. The climate and natural history of the island are unique because of its position on Lake Ladoga. Spring begins at the end of March and a typical summer on Valaam consists of 30-35 sunny days, which is more than on the mainland. The average temperature in July is 17 °C. The winter and snow arrive in early December. In the middle of February the ice road to the nearest city of Sortavala (42 km) is traversable. The average temperature of February is minus 8 °C.
More than 480 species of the plants grow on the island, many of which have been cultivated by monks. The island is covered by coniferous woods, about 65% of which are pine. The island was visited repeatedly by emperors Alexander I, Alexander II, and other members of the imperial family. Other famous visitors include Tchaikovsky and Mendeleyev.
The island is permanently inhabited by monks and families. In 1999, there were about 600 residents on the main island; including army service personnel, restoration workers, guides and monks.[2] There is a kindergarten, an arts and sports venue, a school and a medical center. The community on Valaam at the moment has no official administrative status. The lay inhabitants, (Валаамцы — Valaamtsy), want their settlement to receive the official status of a rural settlement that will enable them to participate in municipal elections. However the leaders of the monastery are opposed to this.
During the summer, the main island can be reached by tour boats which leave St. Petersburg at night and arrive at the island the following morning.[3]
The Cyrillic script (pronounced /sɨˈrɪlɪk/, Bulgarian: Кирилица [kɨˈrɪlɪtsa], Russian: Кири́ллица [kʲɪˈrʲilʲɪʦə]) is an alphabet developed in the 9th century[1] in Bulgaria, and used in the Slavic national languages of Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Ukrainian, and in the non-Slavic languages of Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan, and Mongolian. It also was used in past languages of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Siberia.
The Cyrillic alphabet is also known as azbuka, derived from the old names of the first two letters of most variant Cyrillic alphabets. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek alphabets.
Cyrillic is one of the two alphabets (together with Glagolitic) used in the Church Slavonic language, especially the Old Church Slavonic variant (see Early Cyrillic alphabet). Hence, expressions such as “И is the tenth letter of the Cyrillic alphabet” typically denote that meaning; moreover, not every Cyrillic-based language uses every letter of the alphabet.
` From Wikipedia
The XXI Olympic Winter Games will be held on February 12-28, 2010, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The emblem of the Games has become a stylized figure of inukshuk - stone sculpture in the form of human being. The emblem was given the name “Ilanaak”, which from the local Indian dialect means "friend".