China Post 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Long March by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army

CHINA POST in 2016 issued a series of first day cover stamps to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March by the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

The Long March  was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not just one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The best known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934 and ended in Yan'an, Shaanxi province in October 1935. The First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province. The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometres (5,600 mi) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.

Key moments in the Long March are highlighted in these off set printed maxi cards and stamps.
  - The Long March / 120 fen
  - The Zunyi Conference / 120 fen
  - Crossing the Chishui River Four Times / 120 fen
  - Crossing of Snow Mountains and Grasslands / 120 fen
  - Union of the Three Armies / 150 fen
  - Remembering the Beginning and Continuing the New Long March / 150 fen

Values in set: 6
Date of issue: 22 October 2016
Denomination: 780 fen
Designer: Shen Yaoyi
Size of stamps: 50 x 30 mm
Perforation: 13

Printing process: Offset
Printing House: Henan Provincal Post Printing Works