Scott No: 569-573
Serial number: C88
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: July 1, 1961
Denomination: 72 fen
Designer: Sun Chuanzhe
Size of stamps: 48.5*26.5mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 50(5*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

Issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on July 1, 1961, this commemorative set consists of five stamps. Designed by Sun Chuanzhe and photogravure-printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory, all stamps are gummed on the reverse. They share a uniform size of 52mm × 31mm with perforations of 11.5 degrees. Each full sheet contains 50 stamps arranged in a 5 × 10 format, and the aggregate face value of the set is ¥0.72. Individual print runs: Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Shanghai), 4 fen, 5 million copies; Bayi Building, Nanchang, 8 fen, 8 million copies; Central Auditorium (Ruijin), 10 fen, 4 million copies; Pagoda Hill, Yan’an, 20 fen, 3 million copies; Tiananmen, Beijing, 30 fen, 1.5 million copies. The total print run for complete sets is calculated according to the 30-fen stamp at 1.5 million sets. The release date falls on July 1, the Party Founding Day, echoing the theme of the set.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Shanghai)

The central subject is the Shikumen building at No. 76 Xingye Road, Shanghai. It features grey brick walls, black lacquered gates, a brick lintel and a small balcony on the second floor, a typical old lilong residence rendered in muted purplish-brown tones, quiet and unadorned.

On July 23, 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China convened in the reception room downstairs of this building. Thirteen delegates from across the country attended, representing more than fifty Party members nationwide. When the meeting was interrupted by a search by the French Concession police, the delegates moved to a pleasure boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, to continue the session. The Party programme was adopted there, marking the birth of the Communist Party of China. The building was later converted into a memorial hall as the birthplace of the Party. Opening the set with an ordinary lilong house is its most evocative touch: the starting point was not grand.

Bayi Building, Nanchang

The design depicts a four-storey grey-brick building of quadrangular layout on Zhongshan Road in Nanchang. Its façade carries continuous arched windows encircled by colonnades, topped with a parapet, rendered in teal-green tones with a solid, substantial presence.

Originally the Jiangxi Grand Hostel, the entire building was leased by rebel troops at the end of July 1927 to serve as the headquarters for the Nanchang Uprising. In the early hours of August 1, 1927, Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and others led more than 20,000 troops to fire the first shot of armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries and seize Nanchang, giving birth to the People’s Liberation Army. August 1 was later designated as the Army Day. The illustration captures the command centre of the uprising rather than a battlefield scene.

Central Auditorium (Ruijin)

The stamp portrays a Soviet-style auditorium erected before an earthen slope, with arched main gates and tall side-by-side windows on the front elevation and an octagonal cloister roof. Painted in warm brownish-yellow, it appears simple and massive.

In November 1931, the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviet Republic opened in Yeping, Ruijin, proclaiming the founding of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and making Ruijin the capital of the Central Soviet Area. In 1933, this Central Government Auditorium was built in Shazhouba to prepare for the Second National Soviet Congress, which convened here in January 1934. Capable of holding over two thousand people, it stood as the largest building in the Soviet Area at that time and stands as tangible evidence of the construction of the red political power. After the Long March of the Central Red Army, the auditorium was demolished and later restored to its original appearance.

Pagoda Hill, Yan’an

The composition shows Pagoda Hill and the Yanhe Bridge. The nine-storey octagonal pagoda rises slender atop the ridge; below, the Yanhe River winds past, spanned by a stone arch bridge with faint distant mountains, all painted in cool blue-grey for an open, lucid atmosphere.

First built in the Tang Dynasty as a stupa for Buddhist relics within Pagoda Temple, the pagoda became the landmark of Yan’an. The Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi after the Long March in 1935, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China moved into Yan’an in 1937. For more than a decade thereafter, Yan’an served as the command hub of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the general rear of the behind-enemy-lines battlefields, drawing countless progressive young people. The Yanhe River and the pagoda thus became the most symbolic landscape in the hearts of revolutionaries. No human figures appear in the frame; only the pagoda, river, bridge and mountains convey a sweeping grandeur.

Tiananmen, Beijing

The design presents the front elevation of the Tiananmen Rostrum, with a double-eave hip-and-gable roof, five gateways set into the red wall, and huabiao stone pillars and stone lions standing before the rostrum. Drawn in vermilion, it exudes solemn dignity.

On October 1, 1949, the Founding Ceremony was held on the Tiananmen Rostrum, announcing the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Tiananmen thereafter became the national symbol of New China and a core element of the national emblem. This final stamp closes the set and echoes the Shikumen house on the first stamp, compressing twenty-eight years of revolution along a narrative thread stretching from a lilong lane to the rostrum.

Artistic Design Features

All five stamps adopt a long horizontal format and together form an unbroken chronological sequence: the founding of the Party, the birth of the army, the establishment of the red political power, the settlement in northern Shaanxi and the founding of the new capital. These five buildings serve as five historical markers. Without a single human figure, the main thread of Party history is clearly conveyed, a masterly treatment among early commemorative J and Te stamps.

Each stamp follows the same compositional structure: the architectural subject, rendered in monochrome, occupies the left or central area. Across the top runs the Song-type inscription “The 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China, 1921–1961”. On the right is an upward-curving red flag motif, known at the time as the “Three Red Banners”, symbolising the General Line for Socialist Construction, the Great Leap Forward and the People’s Communes, bearing distinct hallmarks of the 1960s. A uniform gold border is separately printed with gold ink; when the five stamps are laid side by side, the golden lines connect seamlessly, lending a strong festive air.

The five principal images are coloured respectively in purplish brown, teal green, brownish yellow, blue grey and vermilion. Independent yet harmoniously linked, the shifts between cool and warm tones subtly advance the emotional arc, culminating in the vibrant pure red of the final stamp. Photogravure printing renders fine texture such as brick joints, arched windows and tile ridges with clear layers, while flat pale washes avoid the rigid look of photographic reproduction. The style sits halfway between documentary realism and decorative propaganda art.