"The Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link" Special Stamp Issue
Date of Issue: 17 July 2018

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL), about 140 kilometres in length, connects Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Section of the XRL is a 26-kilometre full-tunnel dedicated railway running from the terminus in West Kowloon to the boundary at Huanggang. West Kowloon Station, located to the north of the West Kowloon Cultural District, is situated between Kowloon Station of the Airport Express and Austin Station of the West Rail Line. With the commissioning of the Hong Kong Section of the XRL, Hongkong Post issues a set of four special stamps to commemorate this important event.

By including Hong Kong in the expanding national high-speed rail network, which is currently 25 000 kilometres in length, the Hong Kong Section of the XRL will greatly shorten the travelling time from Hong Kong to major Mainland cities by rail. It will help consolidate Hong Kong’s status as a transport hub in the region, promote exchanges between the people of Hong Kong and the Mainland, strengthen economic ties between the two sides, and facilitate collaboration and co-development of various trades and industries. Importantly too, the construction of the Hong Kong Section demonstrates that Hong Kong’s transport infrastructure is keeping pace with other sophisticated transport systems around the world, and is in line with the global trend of high-speed rail development.

This set of stamps has a distinctive design with the vivid colours and smooth lines of the XRL train linking up the four stamps, which feature Guangzhou ($2), Shenzhen ($3.70) and Hong Kong ($4.90 and $5) respectively from left to right. The train carriages are dotted with various motifs representing the cultural characteristics and landmarks of the three cities. The design for the central part of the train forms a pair of linked hands to signify that Hong Kong and the Mainland will join hands to explore new opportunities through closer exchanges on economic and cultural fronts and in tourism upon the commissioning of the Hong Kong Section of the XRL.