Hongkong Post

Hongkong Post

Type	Trading fund
Industry	Post, Philately
Genre	Postal service
Founded	1841
Founder(s)	Royal Mail
Headquarters	Hongkong Post Headquarters, 2 Connaught Place, Central Hong Kong[1] Hong Kong
Area served	Hong Kong
Key people	Jessie Ting Yip Yin-mei, Postmaster General and General Manager of the Post Office Trading Fund
Products	mail delivery, philatelic products
Services	Postal services, Philatelic services
Revenue	HKD$ 5,176,000,000 (2013)
Owner(s)	Government of Hong Kong
Employees	over 7053 (2013)
Parent	Government of Hong Kong
Website	http://www.hongkongpost.com

Hongkong Post (Chinese: 香港郵政) is a department under the Government of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a Trading Fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office^{[citation needed]} (Chinese: 郵政署) before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It is sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.

History

General Post Office circa 1911.

Merchants traded in Hong Kong on the two sides of Victoria Harbour as early as before the British possession in 1842. They complained about the absence of proper postal services and therefore the Postal Department was established.^{[citation needed]}

The department was founded on August 28, 1841, but the first post office (a.k.a. 書信館 at that time), situated near the current site of St. John's Cathedral, opened on November 12, 1841. At first, its right to operation belonged to the Royal Mail, until its transfer to the Postmaster General on May 1, 1860.^{[citation needed]}

On December 8, 1862, the Office issued the first set of Hong Kong postal stamps. Before this time, only British troops in Hong Kong could use British stamps, while other local residents did not have access to British stamps. Until the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, mail for British forces serving in the then-colony used the British Forces Post Office number, BFPO 1, which was charged at the UK inland rate.^{[citation needed]}

In 1989, the Office introduced automated mail sorting and machines were installed in the General Post Office.^[2]

There is no post code system in Hong Kong, although one has been under consideration since 2000.^[3]

Since August 1995, the Office has operated as a Trading Fund and the full title of the head of the Office became "Postmaster General and General Manager of the Post Office Trading Fund" (Chinese: 香港郵政署長兼郵政署營運基金總經理).^{[citation needed]}

Before 1997, the post boxes were painted red, as in the United Kingdom, and were engraved with the royal cipher, e.g. "EIIR" (short form for "Elizabeth II Regina" ) to represent Queen Elizabeth II. Since the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the livery of the drop-off boxes has become green, with the new Hongkong Post logo. As of December 2011, only 59 colonial post boxes bearing the royal insignia were still in service on the streets of Hong Kong.^[4]

Postal history

During the colonial era, Hong Kong produced postage stamps simply bearing the name Hong Kong, printed alongside the likenesses (in profile) of the reigning monarchs of the United Kingdom, or royal symbols (for example, "EIIR").

Since Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, stamps issued have borne the name "Hong Kong, China". British Hong Kong postage stamps are no longer valid for prepayment of postage and cannot be repurchased by the Post Office.

Post offices

Hongkong Post operates 128 post offices throughout Hong Kong. As of 2007, 34 post offices existed on Hong Kong Island, 42 in Kowloon, 45 in the New Territories and 8 on the Outlying Islands. Two mobile post offices provide postal services in remote areas in the New Territories.

Address format

A general format does not exist for addressing postal items in Hong Kong by Hongkong Post. Addresses are typically written as:

Services

Post

In addition to making its income from traditional postal delivery, Hongkong Post also sells philatelic products, and is used by the Government and utility companies to accept payment from customers.

Philately

Hongkong Post Stamps was a division set up in 1974, charged with promoting and popularising stamp collecting, to meet the ever-increasing demand for Hong Kong stamps by collectors. The division conducts three main areas of work:

• stamp product design and production
• fulfillment and advance ordering service
• philatelic marketing.

Owing to the territory's conservative stamp-issuing policy, stamp collecting in Hong Kong is a popular hobby. Different types of attractively designed stamp products are also popular with stamp collectors around the world.

Other

A SpeedPost delivery van

Hongkong Post also provides services listed below:

• Local Courier Post
• Speedpost
• Periodicals/Circular/Direct Mail services
• e-Post
• e-Cert (Electronic Certificate for e-commerce)
• e-Business
• Franking machine
• Postal remittance service (to Canada, Mainland China, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal and the Philippines)
• Electronic remittance service (through Western Union)
• PayThruPost (Bill payment)
• Logistics, etc.

Incidents

• In 2005 newspapers revealed the presence of pinhole cameras in Cheung Sha Wan Post Office, and this was perceived as a violation of people's privacy. Hongkong Post explained that the cameras were necessary for facilitating police investigations into several suspected theft cases.

• In March 2007, two postal staff lost three bags of mail, destined for Wan Chai and the Eastern District, in the management offices of Hongkong Post buildings. Although Hongkong Post eventually found one of the lost bags, 400 letters were reportedly lost.

Achievements

• Winner of the 2005 "Hong Kong Awards for Industries - Productivity and Quality Award" for achievement in productivity enhancement and total quality management.^[5]
• Winner of the Caring Organisation Logo 2005/06 by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.
• Winner of the Gold Level Certification in the Universal Postal Union EMS Cooperative Audit and Measurement Programme 2005.
• Winner of the Web Care Award 2005 - Gold Prize from Internet Professional Association.
• Guinness World Record holder for the largest stamp mosaic.^[6]

Postage rate

The postage rates vary from one service to another and these can be found at the company's website.^[7]

Gallery

• 

  A large letter box found at Tsim Sha Tsui

• 

  An ordinary stamp vending machine located at a post office

• 

  A postage label vending machine located at Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office. Postage labels are instantly-printed stamps with customizable or pre-set postage fees. It was discontinued service and then removed since summer 2008.

See also

• Chunghwa Post
• China Post
• Correios de Macau
• List of postal services abroad
• List of postal services by countries
• List of Hong Kong companies
• Royal Mail - operated in Hong Kong from 1841 to 1870

Footnotes

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• AskPhil – Glossary of Stamp Collecting Terms
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: The Stamp Atlas
• Webb, F. W. (1961) The Philatelic and Postal History of Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports of China and Japan, The Royal Philatelic Society London

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hongkong Post.

• Hongkong Post official website (English) (traditional Chinese (HK)) (Chinese)

• Hongkong Post Stamps official website (philatelistics)
• Chapter 98 POST OFFICE ORDINANCE in the Law of Hong Kong

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