Scott No: 1208
Serial number: T6
Values in set: 1
Date of issue: October 15, 1974
Denomination: 8 fen
Designer: Yang Baizi
Size of stamps: 60*27mm
Perforation: 11
Sheet composition: 35(5*7)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T6 "Chinese Export Commodities Fair" special stamp was issued on October 15, 1974. The set consists of 1 stamp, printed by photogravure, designed by Yang Baizi, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 60 mm × 27 mm, perforation gauge 11, 35 stamps per sheet.

Theme of the Set

The Chinese Export Commodities Fair, abbreviated as the Canton Fair, is an important window for China's opening to the outside world and for conducting foreign trade. In 1974 the 36th Autumn Canton Fair was held at the new venue on Liuhua Road in Guangzhou, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this stamp to offer congratulations. The stamp presents the appearance of the new Canton Fair venue, reflecting China's self-reliant development of foreign trade, showing the world the achievements of industrial and agricultural construction, and receiving merchants from all five continents and enhancing Chinese-foreign economic, trade, and friendly exchanges.

Stamp Design and Historical Background

Chinese Export Commodities Fair (New Venue)

The main subject of the design is the new Canton Fair building on the east side of Liuhua Lake in Guangzhou. The building's form is expansive and imposing, with slogans hung above the building body and the five-star red flag fluttering on the roof. In the square in front of the exhibition hall, crowds gather, and merchants from all over the world converge here; the square is lined with southern flowers and trees such as palms and green pines, with the pale blue mountains of Yuexiu Hill in the distance, setting off a warm and grand exhibition atmosphere and expressing the Canton Fair's function of connecting Chinese and foreign trade.

Artistic Design Features

The stamp uses a horizontal long strip format, with expansive layers in the picture: distant mountains, the mid-ground exhibition hall, and the near-ground square with flowers, trees, and crowds are arranged in sequence, with bright, warm colors. The architecture is realistic and neat, and the scene is grand and lively. It is a classic work among New China's foreign trade-themed stamps and the second stamp on the Canton Fair theme after Numbered Stamp 95.