Chinese White Dolphin (中華白海豚)
Hongkong (1999)
14th November, 1999. Maonshan
On today and tomorrow, I would like to show three groups of cover which are not related to birds, they are responsible to my swap partners. First one is a posted first day cover of Chinese White Dolphin issued by Hongkong in 1999, it is the only one and first WWF issue of Hongkong, and only two WWF sets have been issued in great Chinese area - other one is Chinese Pangolin (穿山甲) issued by Macao in 1995.
Most of dolphins are live in offshore of Cheklapkok Airport, southern Lantau and Tai O. People begin to pay attention to them since the location of new airport confirmed at Cheklapkok on 1992. Before the reclamation of airport, Cheklapkok and Tung Chung, north Lantau was a natural environment and wetland for different species, included endemic species Romer's Tree Frog (盧文氏樹蛙) which only be found in there and Lamma Island. Nowadays, only the dolphins can be seen in original offshore area but frogs are moved to other places.
As the licensing problem, only stamps, pre-paid postcards and first day cover carry WWF logo. The beautiful souvenir sheet which shown continuing actions of dolphins is without logo. After a year, Hongkong Post reprinted the $5 stamp on one sheetlet to commemorate stamp exhibition held on 2001.