Hongkong Post

For the newspaper, see Hong Kong Post (newspaper).

Hongkong Post is a government department 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 (Chinese: 郵政署) before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It has been a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.

Hongkong Post

Company type	Trading fund
Industry	Post, philately
Genre	Postal service
Founded	1841 (1841)
Founder	Royal Mail
Headquarters	Hongkong Post Headquarters, 2 Connaught Place Central, Hong Kong
Area served	Hong Kong
Key people	Leonia Tai, Postmaster General and General Manager of the Post Office Trading Fund
Products	Mail delivery, philatelic products
Services	Postal services, philatelic services
Revenue	HKD$4,784,000,000 (2021/22)
Owner	Government of Hong Kong
Number of employees	5,951 (2022)
Parent	Government of Hong Kong
Website	hongkongpost.hk

Hongkong Post
Traditional Chinese	香港郵政
Simplified Chinese	香港邮政
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiānggǎng Yóuzhèng Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng yàuh jing Jyutping Hoeng1 Gong2 Jau4 Zing3
Post Office
Traditional Chinese	郵政署
Simplified Chinese	邮政署
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yóuzhèngshǔ Yue: Cantonese Jyutping jau4 zing3 cyu5

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.

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

On 8 December 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.

The office introduced automated mail sorting in 1989, and machines were installed in the General Post Office.

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

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).

Postal history

Main article: Postage stamps and postal history of Hong Kong

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

Main article: List of Hong Kong post offices

As of 2023, Hongkong Post operates 122 post offices (including 3 mobile post offices) throughout Hong Kong. The detailed locations and opening hours of the post offices are on the Hongkong Post website.

iPostal Kiosk

In mid-2021, Hongkong Post launched iPostal Kisok which offers an automated posting service and enables the public to post mail, purchase postage label and make postage enquiry round-the clock. As of July 2023, there are 23 kiosks located across the city.

Post boxes

Hong Kong imported post-boxes from the UK until the practice was discontinued in the 1980s. Before 1997, the post boxes were painted red, as in the United Kingdom, and were engraved with the royal cypher – for example, "EIIR" to represent Queen Elizabeth II. According to fans of Hong Kong's history, featuring the regal insignia on many of the George V and George VI post boxes in Hong Kong are unique as they are different in design from other British post boxes in the world. Since the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997, the livery of the boxes became green, and were adorned with the new Hongkong Post logo.

HongKong Post box bearing insignia of King George V, made during the colonial era, but painted in green from red after 1997

As of October 2015, there are 1,148 free-standing post-boxes in Hong Kong; only 59 colonial post boxes bearing the royal insignia were still in service. In late 2014 Hongkong Post reaffirmed its policy that the remaining 59 colonial-era post boxes would only be replaced if they were seriously damaged or no longer meet the demand of its customers.

Controversy

This department of government said in March 2015 that it was considering covering up the regal insignia on these post boxes, on grounds that it was "not desirable to have postboxes that show various royal cyphers from different British reigns" and to "avoid confusion". Controversy ignited in September upon confirmation that royal cyphers would be covered up by fixing metal plates on all but seven of the historical post boxes. The decision was decried by the Conservancy Association, the Mailboxes Searching Team, and activists opposed to the push of pro-Beijing politicians to "de-colonialise" Hong Kong. According to legislator Claudia Mo of the Civic Party, senior HK Post officials she talked with affirmed that the order to obscure regal insignia on the 59 colonial post boxes came from the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB), which Mo said pointed to a political and not administrative decision.

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
• fulfilment 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.

Root certificate

Since 2000, Hongkong Post is a recognized root certificate authority and issues digital certificates under the trade name "e-Cert".

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.
• In December 2019, Hongkong Post made a notable announcement regarding a modification to one of its new stamp designs. The original design featured black-clad children and the Hongkong Post stated the changes were solely made for aesthetic reasons. But online commentators argued that this change was likely an attempt to avoid any resemblance between black-clad children with anti-government protesters at the time.
• As the demand for delivery services during the coronavirus pandemic surged since November 2020, scammers have cheated more than 100 Hongkongers out of HKD $2.2 million through phishing text messages and emails claiming to be from Hongkong Post.

Achievements

• Winner of the 2005 "Hong Kong Awards for Industries – Productivity and Quality Award" for achievement in productivity enhancement and total quality management.
• 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.

List of Postmasters-General

A tablet displayed inside the General Post Office, Hong Kong, showing a list of the Postmasters General of Hong Kong between 1841 and 2003

#	Name	Date of Appointment	Remarks
1	T. G. Fitzgibbon	25 August 1841	Clerk-in-Charge
2	D. Mullaly	8 October 1841
3	Robert Edwards	April 1842
4	F. Spring	1843
5	Thomas Jackson Scales	April 1844
6	Thomas Hyland 海蘭	1846
7	William Chapman	14 May 1857
8	Francis William Mitchell 蔑祖	24 November 1862
9	Alfred Lister 李士達	24 April 1875
10	Arthur Kennedy Travers 剌花士	1 January 1891
11	Alexander MacDonald Thomson 譚臣	17 October 1896
12	Cmdr. William Charles Holland Hastings 夏士廷	15 February 1899	Died in office
13	Lewis Audley Marsh Johnston 尊士頓	23 January 1903	Died in office
14	Charles McIlvaine Messer 馬沙	18 November 1908
15	Edward Dudley Corscaden Wolfe 胡樂甫	19 April 1913
16	Stewart Buckle Carne Ross 羅士	1 February 1917
17	Michael James Breen 巴連	22 March 1924
18	Geoffrey Robley Sayer 佘義	28 April 1928
19	Norman Lockhart Smith 史美	12 October 1928
(17)	Michael James Breen 巴連	7 February 1930	Second time
20	Eric William Hamilton 韓美頓	18 July 1931
(17)	Michael James Breen 巴連	21 April 1932	Third time
21	William James Carrie 嘉利	3 June 1933
(17)	Michael James Breen 巴連	22 February 1934	Fourth time
22	Henry Robert Butters 畢打士	23 March 1936
23	Edward Irvine Wynne-Jones 榮鐘士	12 December 1936
24	Robert Andrew Dermod Forrest 富勵士	12 January 1940
(23)	Edward Irvine Wynne-Jones 榮鐘士	10 January 1941	Second time
	Hong Kong under Japanese occupation from 25 December 1941 to 15 August 1945
(23)	Edward Irvine Wynne-Jones 榮鐘士	13 June 1946	Third time
25	John Henry Burkill Lee 李佐安	23 February 1948
26	Leonard Charles Saville 沙惠予	8 March 1950
27	Alfred George Crook 高旭	1 August 1958
28	Cecil George Folwell 符偉略	22 March 1968
29	Malki Addi 魏達賢	19 March 1971	First non-European
30	David John Kyle Bamford 潘富達	7 March 1977
31	Arthur Cyril Heathcote 許富國	8 January 1980
32	Hugh Gordon Ardley 歐德理	23 December 1982
33	Gordon K. C. Siu 蕭炯柱	18 March 1988	First ethnic Chinese
34	Dominic S. W. Wong 黃星華	18 September 1989
35	Michelangelo Pagliari 柏景年	11 May 1992
36	Robert Footman 霍文	20 November 1995	Last expatriate
37	Luk Ping-chuen 陸炳泉	24 November 1998
38	Allan Chiang Yam-wang 蔣任宏	31 March 2003
39	Tam Wing-pong 譚榮邦	10 July 2006
40	Clement Cheung Wan-ching 張雲正	14 September 2009
41	Jessie Ting Yip Yin-mei 丁葉燕薇	3 October 2011	First female
42	Gordon Leung Chung-tai 梁松泰	10 July 2017
43	Cathy Chu Man-ling 朱曼鈴	9 September 2019
44	Leonia Tai Shuk-yiu 戴淑嬈	2 September 2021

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 customisable or pre-set postage fees. It was discontinued and then removed in summer 2008.

See also

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

References

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd.: various catalogues
• "AskPhil – Glossary of Stamp Collecting Terms". Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• "Encyclopaedia of Postal History". Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• 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

• Hongkong Post official website
• Hongkong Post at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
• Chapter 98 POST OFFICE ORDINANCE in the Law of Hong Kong
• 香港舊郵筒地圖 Hong Kong Old Postboxes Map