The Chinese Great Wall Station was opened on the 20th February, 1985 in the ceremony shown at left with the raising of the Chinese flag.

The Great Wall Station is situated on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands alongside the Antarctic Peninsula. The base is only 2 .5km away from the large Chilean Eduardo Frei Base which operates a permanent runway which is used by the Chinese airforce to re-supply the Great Wall Station.

The base normally houses 40 people during the summer season and 14 in winter.

The above cover has been posted out through the nearby Chilean Eduardo Frei Base and postmarked there 21st September, 1999. Backstamped at Christchurch on arrival on 6 OPctober, 1999.  This cover indicates that the Great Wall postmarker was left at the station after the "Xue Long" had returned to China and was available to postmark mail later in the season.  The date however is not changeable.

Note: The above cover is interesting in that it came first from the Great Wall Base and then via Eduardo Frei Base to Christchurch. The Eduardo Frei datestamp is 20th January, 1999 and the backstamping at Christchurch is 8th February, 1999 so the Great Wall Station postmark was used well before the date on the cancellor,  probably sometime in the middle of January 1999.

Note: this cover bears a current China Post vending machine stamp plus cachets for the 1999-2000 season. It has come out of the Great Wall Station via Chinese aircraft at Eduardo Frei Base and is backstamped on arrival in Christchurch on 6 November, 2000. The cover was  posted at the Great Wall Station in early October, 2000 but has a February date on it because this is the only date used by the post office at the Great Wall Station.

Note: The image at right shows the back and insides of the above letter-sheet. It has an attractive view of the Great Wall Station in mid summer when the snow has melted around the station.

The date of the postmark is the date that the 17th Expedition Team left Shanghai by air for the Station as this year the party did not have the use of the vessel "Xue Long" which was beeing overhauled. Member flew via Santiago, Punta Arenas and Eduardo Frei Chilean Antarctic Base.

Note: the above cover has a special cachet to celebrate the first over-wintering at the station by female members. Because the "Xue long" was being refitted the Chinese 17th Expedition flew from Beijing via Chile and Eduardo Frei Base. The 12 over-winterers included 2 females.

Note: the above envelope bears a special cachet in the middle bottom celebrating the joint Antarctic co-operation between China, Germany and Peru.

Note: the above picture postcard has a view of the Great Wall station on the picture side.

Note: The above Chinese postal stationery cover was issued by the Chinese state post office in 2002 and features a nice view of the supply vessel "Xue Long" at bottom left.