French post offices in China

Some earlier 20th century stamps were issued only with face values expressed in French francs, but all later issues were overprinted with the equivalent of the stamp’s Chinese currency face value expressed in both French and Chinese.

The Paris-run offices would not accept mail franked with unoverprinted stamps of French Indochina, but the Indochinese run-offices are known to have done so.

For this reason, French Indochina stamps are sometimes found legitimately used with cancels from one of their Chinese offices.

From 1923, remainder stocks of the Indochinese office issues were used up in Indochina and Kouang Tchéou Wan, see below.

One notable exception to this were the post offices in Kouang Tchéou Wan (usually written in English as "Kwangchowan") which was a territory leased by treaty to France for a 99-year period starting in 1898.

[4] Due to its status as a leased territory still in existence after 1922, Kouang Tchéou was the only French postal entity in China to issue airmail stamps and semi-postal stamps, although most of these were issued by the government of Vichy France.

[4] French postal operations in Kouang-Tchéou continued until 1943, when the colony was occupied by the Japanese army.

Although France resumed sovereignty briefly over the colony for a few months at the end of the Second World War the territory was returned to China in early 1946.