Taiwan - Special Postmark - 9.9.99

Thanks to Shui of Taiwan for this special postcard commemorating Confucius with postmarked stamps and postmark date of 9.9.99. Officially, this is year 99 on the Taiwan calendar. Taiwan counts its years since the founding of the Republic of China in 1911 by Sun Yat-sen. The number nine is one of the numbers in Chinese culture that is considered lucky because nine (九, jiǔ) sounds like the word for 'long' (久, jiǔ), which connotes longevity.