Xitou Monster Village and Pyrestes curticornis - a card from Taiwan

XITOU MONSTER VILLAGE

Country: Taiwan

Place: Birmingham
Received: 13/04/2013

Distance: 8 025 km
Travelled: 119 days

Cute monster

Xitou Monster Village is a Japanese style village built in 2011 in Taiwan. Torii, a traditional Japanese gate standing at the entrance of the village, symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. All over the small village you may find cute Japanese monster statues.

Pyrestes curticornis stamp

Vintage Tula - a card from Great Britain

TULA

Country: Great Britain

Place: Birmingham
Received: 04/04/2013

Distance: 1 960 km
Travelled: 37 days

Vintage card of Tula

Elizabeth II

Tula is a city in Russia, located 193 km to the south from Moscow, on the Upa River, which is 345 km long. Tula was first mentioned in 1146 and is famous for Tula accordion (a free-reed wind instrument), pryaniki and samovar.

Traditional Russian pryaniki (gingerbread) are the cookies made with honey and spices. Tula gingerbread often looks like a rectangular tile or a flat figure and contains jam or condensed milk and honey as well. Gingerbreads in Tula originate from the 17th century, and In 1996 Tula opened a museum dedicated to these cookies.

Tula is also a center of samovar production. Samovar is a heated metal container used to boil water. The Russian idiom says "You don't take a samovar to Tula", which is an equivalent of "coals to Newcastle".

Cat and the window, Tagetes and Eurasian lynx - a card from Germany

CAT AND THE WINDOW

Country: Germany

Place: Kaiserslautern
Received: 30/03/2013

Distance: 1 450 km
Travelled: 20 days

Cat and the window

Kaiserslautern has the population of almost 99 500 people, and its historic center dates to the 9th century. Additionally, Kaiserslautern is a home for about 50 000 people from NATO military community. The early American military population had some difficulties with pronouncing the German name, and Kaiserslautern is also named as “K-town” for this reason.

Tagetes flower stamp

Eurasian lynx stamp

Lynx is widely used in heraldry, symbolizing visual acuity. Due to this, the constellation was named after the lynx by Johannes Hevelius in 1690. Hevelius commented his choice: “Only small stars are located in this part of the sky, and you are to have the lynx’s eyes to distinguish between them and recognize.”

Map of Taiwan, Rosalia formosa and Delonix regia - a card from Taiwan

MAP OF TAIWAN

Country: Taiwan

Place: Kaohsiung
Received: 21/03/2013

Distance: 8 176 km
Travelled: 30 days

Map of Taiwan

Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) was based in mainland China originally. Now the Republic of China governs the island of Taiwan and some minor islands nearby only.

The status of Taiwan is a bit uncertain, as the People's Republic of China claims Taiwan’s government to be illegitimate. The Republic of China, however, has constitution, president and army, viewing itself as a sovereign state. The present territory of Taiwan has never been controlled by the People's Republic of China.

The Capital of Taiwan is Taipei, and Standard Chinese is the official language. Taiwan, alongside with South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, is one of the "Four Asian Tigers" due to the quick industrial growth and development during the 2^nd half of the 20^th century.

By the way, Scriptor has the similar card in his blog too :)

Rosalia formosa conviva stamp

Rosalia is a member of a diverse family of longhorn beetles.

Delonix regia stamp

Delonix regia is a plant noted for its leaves and flowers and grown as an ornamental tree in many parts of the world. Its English name is Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant. In India it is called Gulmohar – “Gul” means “Flower” and “Mor” means “Peacock”, which is very close to the tree’s appearance.

Bears and other treasures - a letter from Great Britain

BEARS AND OTHER TREASURES

Country: Great Britain

Place:  Wirral
Received: 13/03/2013

Distance: 1 857 km
Travelled: 21 days

A letter from Scriptor

Great envelope

My partner likes this chubby bear. When I take my second portion of sweets sometimes, he jokes and says "Come on, where's our envelope?". A hint: "Dear, you are about to look like this bear soon" :)

"Do you like my hat?"

This card is magnificent! Unfortunately, I was not able to find any origins except of it's title...

Baby's First Book

"Baby's First Book" is a picture book for toddlers. It was written by B.Lewis and published with this cover in 1954.

Royal Liver Building

The Royal Liver Building in Liverpool was built in 1911 and is the home of the Royal Liver Assurance Group. With the height of 90 m it was the tallest building in Europe until 1934 and in the United Kingdom until 1961. The building has clocks 7.6 m in diameter, which is more than Big Ben's. They were named George clocks, because of being started at the time that King George V was crowned on 22 June 1911.

Double-decker

Double-decker buses are common in the United Kingdom and became a national symbol of England and British Isles. The first woman licensed to drive a double-decker became Miss Phyllis Thompson in 1941.

Elizabeth II

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a famous fairy-tale by Robert Southey, published in 1837 and translated into many languages.

Paddington Bear

You may find more about this cute bear from this post in my blog.

Rupert the Bear

Rupert Bear is a comic character created by Mary Tourtel and first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper in 1920. He was originally depicted as a brown bear, but the color changed to white soon. To save on printing costs :)