Enter the Heilongjiang Province Postal Museum

The Heilongjiang Postal Museum is the only professional postal museum in the three provinces of Northeast China. The museum is located in the building of the Jilin-Heilongjiang Postal Administration Bureau, which was built in 1922. Within the bustling commercial district, this century-old Baroque-style building has become the 'Treasure of the Museum' (and also a Harbin protected building) for the Heilongjiang Postal Museum. As you enter the Heilongjiang Postal Museum, the first thing that catches your eye is a large forged copper relief wall titled 'The Spring and Autumn of the Postal Garden.' It was created by Professor Sun Jiabin, a famous Chinese sculptor, with the background of the Changbai Mountains and the vast snowy forests. Featuring elements such as flying geese, dog sleds, horse-riding couriers, railways, river bridges, trains, oil fields, and modern postal workers, it spans time and space, reviews the past and present, and reenacts the long history of postal services in the Heilongjiang region. The 'Treasure of the Museum' of the Heilongjiang Postal Museum includes a gold and copper token with characters that many people do not recognize. After expert verification, it was identified as Khitan script, reading 'Chiyisù.' It is a golden decree from the Liao and Jin dynasties, held in the right hand of a Liao dynasty messenger, used to rapidly convey the emperor's edicts between various post stations. In ancient times, the Northeast region was bound by ice and snow, and the traditional mode of transportation, the horse, could not function well here. The regional postal system characteristic of the 'Dog Station' originated in the Yuan dynasty when the postal network was initially established. Unlike ordinary post stations that used horses for transportation, 'Dog Stations' relied on dog sleds to transport goods and letters. From the 'Dog Stations' of the Yuan dynasty to the ice sleds that delivered mail on the Songhua River during the Republic of China period, the profound changes also wrote a chapter of 'Snowy Postal Romance.' Finally, I arrived at my favorite part of the museum, the Stamp Treasure Hall, where I witnessed precious and rare full sheets of stamps such as the 'Gengshen Year Golden Monkey,' 'Military Use,' 'Long Live the Complete Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,' and 'The Whole Country is Red.' These are some of the rarest stamps. Stepping out of the Heilongjiang Province Postal Museum, I was still reminiscing about the century-long postal history of Longjiang. This place has witnessed the prosperity and flourishing of the postal industry in the Northeast region and allows people to feel the historical significance carried by this building through its rich exhibits and documentary materials.