Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps

Experience the vibrant tradition of cheung chau jiao festival with hongkong post's special stamps

Hongkong Post announced today (April 23) that a special stamp issue and associated philatelic products on the theme of "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" will be released for sale on May 9 (Thursday).

Cheung Chau Jiao Festival was inscribed onto the third National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011, and the first Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hong Kong in 2017. Held from the fifth to ninth days of the fourth lunar month every year, the activity has been practised for more than a century. Jiao Festival is the time for Cheung Chau residents to express gratitude to Pak Tai for dispelling disasters and blessing the local community with peace. During the Jiao Festival, various folk crafts and folk performing arts of Cheung Chau, such as unicorn dance, gongs and drums and Piu Sik Parade, are showcased.

Hongkong Post will issue a set of four stamps, two stamp sheetlets and associated philatelic products on the theme of "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" to promote this intangible cultural heritage in Hong Kong, in the hope that this traditional festival and the folk crafts can pass down through generations.

Official first day covers for "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" will be on sale at all post offices and on Hongkong Post's online shopping mall ShopThruPost (shopthrupost.hongkongpost.hk) from April 24 (Wednesday). This set of special stamps and associated philatelic products will be on sale at all post offices and on ShopThruPost from May 9, while serviced first day covers affixed with the special stamps will be available at philatelic offices only.

A hand-back date-stamping service will be provided on May 9 at all post offices for official first day covers/souvenir covers/privately made covers bearing the first day of issue indication and a local address.

Information about this set of special stamps and associated philatelic products is available on the Hongkong Post Stamps website (stamps.hongkongpost.hk) and in the ShopThruPost mobile app.

Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Hongkong Post to issue "Intangible Cultural Heritage - Cheung Chau Jiao Festival" special stamps Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

High-level meeting with japanese officials: urgent concerns over fukushima's nuclear contaminated water discharge

The Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan, met the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Takahashi Mitsuo, and the Consul-General of Japan in Hong Kong, Mr Kenichi Okada, today (May 3) upon request and discussed about the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water in Japan.

Mr Tse reiterated at the meeting that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has come to the view that there is currently no guarantee from the Japanese authorities that their purification and dilution system can operate continuously and effectively in the long term, and that the discharge will not pose any potential risks to food safety and marine ecology. Safeguarding food safety and public health in Hong Kong is the responsibility of the HKSAR Government, thus corresponding precautionary measures must be taken. The HKSAR Government will closely monitor developments of the discharge, so as to obtain more monitoring and scientific data in order to further examine the impact of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge on food safety, and keep under review relevant counter measures. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.

In response to the Japanese Government's earlier decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear PowerStation into the sea, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong.For other aquatic products, sea salt, and unprocessed or processed seaweed from Japan that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.

Besides, all vegetables, fruits, milk, milk beverages and dried milk originating from Fukushima are banned from importing into Hong Kong while such foods originating from the four prefectures nearby Fukushima, i.e. Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma, are allowed to be imported on the condition that they are accompanied with a radiation certificate and an exporter certificate issued by the Japanese authority. Chilled or frozen game, meat and poultry, and poultry eggs originating from the above five prefectures are allowed to be imported on the condition that they are accompanied with a radiation certificate issued by the Japanese authority which shows the radiation levels do not exceed the guideline levels of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

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