San Marino issues Expo Shanghai stamp

San Marino on Friday issued a stamp to mark the Expo Shanghai – another major event for China after Olympics.

The stamp values 2.20 euros (US$3.11). In the forefront is the skyline of Lujiazui area, Pudong, a district in Shanghai, including the Shanghai World Financial Center, also known as the “bottle opener” due to its unique shape, and an emblem of the Shanghai Expo 2010. To the top right corner, the stamp shows the image of China Pavilion to be built in the Expo site. Often called as the “Oriental Crown,” it is inspired by the wooden buildings in ancient China. The stamp also has a sentence of Italian language saying "Towards Shanghai 2010."

San Marino's Azienda Autonoma di Stato Filatelica e Numismatica, the state company for Philatelic and Numismatics, said that Pudong is the mark of Shanghai with skyscrapers representing Shanghai's economic dynamics and China Pavilion inherits traditional Chinese architecture style.

San Marino's minister for tourism Fabio Berardi said that San Marino and China have long lasting friendship and San Marino decided to participate in Expo 2010 and issuing stamps to mark the friendship.

China's ambassador to Italy, Sun Yuxi, thanked San Marino for issuing the stamp and wished San Marino's exhibition a success in Expo 2010.

Since World War II, San Marino has only attended two World Expos: Brussels Expo in 1958 and Lisbon Expo in 1998.