Animal magic

China's zodiac cycle is celebrated by the post office with an annual series of new editions of stamps, and some can bring untold fortune. Yang Ning reports.

Rabbits now can be seen on almost everything in China. That's because 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, according to the country's traditional zodiac cycle of 12 animals. You can see rabbits on clothing, earrings, bags, toys and a plethora of other items. There is even rabbit-shaped food on sale. However, the hottest items of all are rabbit stamps. In early January, hundreds of thousands of people waited at midnight outside post offices across the land for the first-day release of rabbit stamps by China Post. Some post offices sold out within a few hours. Their popularity means that the price of rabbit stamps is now rising on a daily basis in the secondary markets. "On a sheet of 20 rabbit stamps with a face value of 1.2 yuan (18 cents) each stamp is now selling for about 80 yuan, more than three times its face value," said Liu Lixia, a stamp trader at Beijing Madian Stamp Market, one of the biggest stamp trading markets in the country.

On Jan 24, Zhang Renping, a 65-year-old stamp collector from Beijing told China Daily that he had paid 67 yuan for a sheet of 20 rabbit stamps a week before.