128 years ago today, on February 20, 1897 (January 19, 1897 lunar calendar), "Daqing Post" was opened in Beijing. 1906 Fujian Post General Administration Daqing Post was the abbreviation of the Daqing Post Office approved by the Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty on March 20, 1896. The Qing government started to promote the post since 1890 (the 16th year of Guangxu). At the moment of the birth of Daqing Post, China had its first set of stamps - Dalong Stamps. On February 20, 1897, "Daqing Post" was opened in Beijing, marking the official start of our country's national postal service. At that time, the Beijing General Post Office was located in the Guandi Temple near Dongjiaomin Lane in Beijing. There were four branches of Longfu Temple, Guangji Temple, Muoma Market and Garlic Market Entrance outside Chongwen Gate. There were only 13 employees in total. The Royal Mail Service was modeled after the European model and would be under the command of Sir Hurd, who had been appointed as the postmaster general by the Qing emperor. Until then, the post office affairs of the Qing Dynasty had been controlled by the minister in charge of military affairs. Hurd, who has been the general taxation department of the Qing Dynasty Customs since 1861; during the highly centralized period of the Ming Dynasty (1368/1644), the Beijing government attached great importance to post transportation and postal delivery, and the operation was quite orderly. However, by the 17th century, the post system had collapsed at a very high level of development due to government officials profiting from it. It was not until the second Manchu emperor (Editor's note: referring to Emperor Shengzu of Qing Emperor Kangxi) succeeded to the throne that the service regained its greatness, and in fact was greatly expanded. With the continuous conquest and expansion of Xinjiang, the need for good and frequent communication between the central and frontier regions became more urgent than ever. In order to manage and control the service as a whole, Beijing specially appointed a number of officials, who were directly supervised by the minister in charge of military affairs at the imperial court. In these post stations, all the necessities for long-distance transportation, such as horses, camels, vehicles, boats, etc., were fully prepared. Most post stations are located next to the main roads. The service is divided into two levels. Government documents and urgent mail are the first level post, and ordinary passengers' luggage and war materials that the army needs to transfer belong to the second level post. This Royal Postal Service is now managed by the Imperial Postmaster General. The Imperial General Post Office was located in the capital of Beijing, while the branch offices were limited to the provincial capitals and were headed by the deputy postmasters. These officials were specially selected from the top military officers. In theory, the Royal Mail was only responsible for forwarding and transmitting government circulars, decrees and similar official documents, but in practice, messengers also carried personal letters from high-ranking figures. Messengers were specially selected and enjoyed certain privileges. For example, they could stay in hotels for free and ask the locals to feed their horses free of charge. The second level of postal service is known as the "ordinary postal service". This level of postal service has now spread throughout the Qing Dynasty. Its headquarters is located in Beijing, and every Chinese town with city walls has a branch. The local governor's palace, which is usually also the postmaster of the district, is responsible for directing and managing subordinates. These subordinates act as regional postmasters. Likewise, the district director is responsible for directing and managing mail carriers and couriers. Each of them must forward or deliver mail from their stations to the stations closest to them. The average distance between the two stations is no more than one hundred miles, which is about forty miles. A person at each station is responsible for registering all letters received and forwarded. All houses used for postal services are owned by the government. Almost all official documents that need to be sent are stamped with a special mark indicating how fast they need to be delivered. Ordinary documents are marked to be delivered at 200 miles tomorrow, which is about 80 miles a day; some documents that require expedited delivery are expected to be delivered at 400 miles a day, while some urgent documents need to be delivered at 800 miles a day! The courier must complete the journey regardless of the weather or be punished. The fastest postal record in the Qing Dynasty was to cross 280 Delhi (nearly 1,400 miles) in four days, or the equivalent of 14 miles per hour. This record was set during the Taiping Rebellion in 1851. The cost of this postal service was borne by the provinces. In 1913, a bronze statue of Hurd was erected in front of the customs building in recognition of his 48 years of guarding the country's gates;