1908 Postcard from Shanghai, China, to Kahlberg (East Prussia, German Empire) via Trans-Sibirian Railway with 3 Different Stamps from the Foreign Postal Service in China (Russia, Germany, Great Britain), Very Interesting Transit Route

This postal Item is a fascinating journey from Shanghai to Germany in 1908. The various stamps dokument a compley route across multiple post offices, wich was typical for the era of foreign post offices in China.

The wonderfull picture of the postcard tells a lot with the picture of the German occupied fort and the inlet to the bay intrance of Kiautschou, plus the location map of the German leased protectorate. 

But the real interesting are the different stamps and postmarks, because of the mixed franking with a processing by several postal services

The journes starts with the departure stamp (Shanghai) on the top right with a 4c Hong Kong stamp, cancelled with a circular date stamp from Shanghai dated June 29th 1908. This indicates the use of the British Post Office in Shanghai. The Shanghai postmark in the top center is the Chinese postmark for sending mail abroad.

Then there is the Russian 1K with overprint Cyrillic for China, with officially authorized its use within the Russian post office in China the stamp has a postmark Shanghai from June 16th 1908. At that time, Russia still used the Julian calendar, which was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar (June 29th).

Last stamp is the 2c transit stamp on the bottom left from Tsingtau (Kiautschou), the German leased territoy at the time, also dated June 29th 1908. Mail was often sent via the Shantung Railway and then onto the Trans-Sibirian Railway to Europe.

The postmark on the top left shows the arrival in Kahlberg on July 16th, 1908, The journey took only about 17 days, proving the speed of the Sibirian route compared to the sea route.

Very Fine