Lot# 9031

registered airmail cover sent from Peking to Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia, franked with four stamps totaling 17,200 yuan (RMB), tied by “Peking 50.8.16” cds, bearing red registration label “No.7020.” The cover was routed via Moscow, utilizing the newly established Peking-Moscow air route, which had been officially opened on 1 July 1950 under Sino-Soviet postal cooperation. This cover was mailed on the first day of the Fifth Postal Tariff Period (16 August - 31 October 1950). During this period, the postal administration introduced a new airmail surcharge category for “East Europe”, applicable to socialist countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, with a reduced airmail fee of 6,500 yuan per 10 grams, considerably lower than the 10,500 yuan per 10 grams rate applied to “Other Countries.” However, since this letter was posted on the very first day of the new rate period, the postal clerk apparently had not yet received notification of the revised tariffs and thus calculated postage at the former “Other Countries” rate. The postage was computed as follows: 2,500 yuan for the first 20 grams of international surface postage, plus 10,500 yuan airmail surcharge per 10 grams, and 4,200 yuan for registration, for a total of 17,200 yuan, whereas the correct rate for “East Europe” should have been 13,200 yuan, resulting in an overpayment of 4,000 yuan. This rare first-day usage clearly illustrates the transitional confusion that occurred during the implementation of the new postal rate system. It also demonstrates the early functioning of the China-Soviet airmail route, marking one of the first examples of restored postal communication between China and Central Europe under the unified RMB postal system. A highly significant postal history item, valuable for its documentation of rate misapplication, postal reform, and early PRC international airmail development, and of great importance for research and exhibition. Cover with glue stains at stamps, but still a very important postal history item.