Talk:Timeline of postal history

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[edit] 2004 post

The material lifted from the USPS may or may not be copyrighted (as a private corporation heavily regulated by US law it's not entirely clear), but in any case it's now been removed or rewritten. Stan 13:14, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Country links proposal

Would it not be a better idea that all links referring to stamps should link to the country's stamp article rather than to the country article? This seems more useful to visitors than a country link. ww2censor (talk) 15:30, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Incomplete

As my undertanding, this article is about the timeline of postal history of the whole WORLD. One significant omission is the postal hisotry of China, which was developed very early with high efficiency and wide coverage. A few random samples:

Qin Dynasty (221BC-201BC): royal mail system established.

Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD): mail transfering station system established, as in Chinese "五里一亭，十里一亭，三十里置驿," loosely meaning one minor resting area for every 2 km and one major resting area for every 4 km, and one postal station for every 12 km. A postal station was used for food, lodge and change of horses, etc.

Tang Dynasty (618-907): total postal sations reached over 1,600.

Poet Du Fu (712-770) said in one poem: I won't trade letters from my family with one thousand gold coins (家书抵万金）. As a civilian and very poor, Du Fu was able to receive his mails from his family even during a very chaotic civil war (lasted over seven years and with estimated death toll up to 36 million, see here: An Lushan Rebellion), albiet very difficult. This indicated a very developed mail system that was available to pulic at least by this time.

Song Dynasty (960-1279): express mail (carried by military personnel, i.e. soldiers) established: distance of mail travelled ~200km per day (24hrs) for gold mail, 160km for silver mail and 120 km bronze mail.

Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) of Qing Dynasty (1644-1912): prominent official, general, and scholar: In one letter to his father dated in 1841: I have received five letters (from diferent family members) since departing you two months ago. Among Zeng's collected works of 156 books, several hundred letters were included. He probably sent out thousands of letters to his family during his life time and that'a a good evidence of a very developed postal system in Qing Dynasty.

That being saied, I don't have the time and resource (and authority) to give a complete and fair edition for this part of the item and hopefully somebody will pick it up.

Reference: A Brief Histry of Chinese Postal System(in Chinese, on website of Shanghai Postal Office) --Minimeme (talk) 16:51, 9 April 2008 (UTC)