social media in China

I'm not usually too fond of ad cards as a lot of them are so tacky and boring and well, just seem like adverts for a product or something else I'm not interested in. There are exceptions, however, and this official from China is a great example.

  CN-689072
This card shows the most popular websites in China and the numbers of members they have. I have to confess I hadn't ever heard of most of these websites so I found this really interesting and informative.

Vladivostok, Russia

I thought I'd post a few older cards for a change. I've got so many nice ones I received before starting this blog and it would be a shame to leave them all aside.

I'm starting with this lovely card from Russia I received through a swap. I totally adore it - the old house looks very charming and the black cat just adds to the charm. ...AND the card is from Vladivostok, a place I find fascinating due to its remote location.



Vladivostok is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's border with China and North Korea. It is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet. The population of the city, as of 2010, is 578,000.

From 1958 to 1991, only Soviet citizens were allowed to live in Vladivostok or visit it (and even then had to obtain an official permission). Before this closure, the city had large Korean and Chinese populations. Some Koreans who were deported during Stalin's rule from the Russian Far East have since returned, particularly to Vladivostok.

The Trans-Siberian Railway was built to connect European Russia with Vladivostok, Russia's most important Pacific Ocean port. Finished in 1905, the rail line ran from Moscow to Vladivostok via several of Russia's main cities. Part of the railroad, known as the Chinese Eastern Line, crossed over into Manchuria, China, passing through Harbin, a major city in Manchuria. During the Soviet era, Vladivostok's status as a closed city meant that ferry-passenger tourists arriving from Japan to travel the Trans-Siberian railway westbound had to embark in Nakhodka. Today, Vladivostok serves as the main starting point for the Trans-Siberian portion of the Eurasian Land Bridge.

The picture on this card is from the Old City (Millionka) in Vladivostok. ...and could you have guessed that this is an ad card? I sure couldn't if I didn't know! Just goes to show that there are nice ad cards around so I don't think people should be so negative about all ad cards. (The card advertises a café and Vladivostok TAXI.)

Museum of London

GB-139861

What did I say about receiving postcards from people living outside of their home countries? It seems like that's the theme of the week - I've just had yet another such card! This time it's from a Dutch girl living and studying in London. This is one of the nicest ad cards I've received for a long time. It advertises the Museum of London, opening on 28 May 2010.

This is what the card says about the new museum:

"The spectacular £20 million Galleries of Modern London, opening on 28 May 2010, tell the story of London and its people from 1666 to the present day. Five new galleries and 7,000 objects show how the vibrant and unflagging energy of Londoners has shaped this global city."

It sounds really interesting, it would be nice to visit it one day. You can find out more about the museum here.



The stamp is the standard second class definitive stamp. I don't understand why (most) British stamps have to be so boring. :( On a related note, within the UK you have the option to send mail either by first or second class. First class is slightly more expensive and it's *supposed to* be delivered the day after mailing. This is not quite how it works in reality, however, which is why I only really use first class stamps to mail job applications, or postcards to people who appreciate nice stamps (as nice stamps are not available in 2nd class anymore :/) on their mail. I think it's a waste of money to send normal mail in first class when there's no guarantee it's going to be delivered the following day. Quite often it takes at least as long as second class mail, and earlier this year there was an instance where I sent a postcard to London in first class, but it took a month to arrive! Royal Mail can be such a joke sometimes...

Royal Mail quite often prints messages on cancellations, usually advertising different services or reminding people to write the postcode on their mail. I had no idea what this was about, so I had to check out what this "10:10" means. Apparently it's an environmental project where individuals and organisations are trying to achieve a 10% cut in the UK’s carbon emissions in 2010. I wonder how it's going to work... Surely airmail isn't the most environmental thing to be around, but then there would be no international mail (or it would take weeks or even months to arrive), which would be devastating news for postcrossers (and lots of other people as well - you just can't use email all the time!).