On September 18, 82-year-old Chinese-American Zhang Youxin, a devoted member of Friends of Kuliang, returned to Kuliang, a scenic suburb in Fuzhou that has held a special place in his heart for more than a decade.

This time, he brought more than nostalgia. Among his treasures were over 40 postcards personally designed by Elyn MacInnis, founder of Friends of Kuliang in the United States, as well as cherished vintage envelopes from the historic Kuliang Post Office.

Zhang Youxin stamps the postcards with the Kuliang Post Office postmark. [Photo/FZ Evening News]

That afternoon, in the sunny sitting room of the Life on the Mountain Museum, sunlight filtered through wooden windows, illuminating rows of postcards neatly arranged on a table. Zhang carefully inscribed blessings for friends overseas, gently stamped each with the "Kuliang" postmark, and prepared them for journeys to the U.S., Japan, Singapore and beyond.

"I want to share Kuliang with the world," Zhang said with quiet conviction. Each postcard, featuring a black-and-white photo of the old Kuliang Post Office and a heart-shaped "I Love Kuliang" slogan in Chinese and English, carries not only artistic beauty but also a symbol of deep friendship and shared memory.

Zhang Youxin shows the postcards personally designed by Elyn MacInnis. [Photo/FZ Evening News]

For more than a decade, Zhang has devoted himself to collecting and studying Kuliang's postal history. Through hundreds of stamps and envelopes, he has told the "Dream of Kuliang" in over 70 published articles.

"Every postmark, every envelope, is a miniature story of Kuliang," Zhang said, touching a yellowed stamp with reverence. His mission is to use these small artifacts to share Kuliang's history and the stories of mutual aid between Chinese and foreign friends.

Zhang's passion began in 2012 when a news report announced the reopening of the long-closed Kuliang Post Office. Inspired by the story of Elizabeth Gardner, who had long searched for the "Kuliang" postmark for her husband Milton Gardner, Zhang, as a philatelist from Fuzhou, resolved to acquire an authentic Kuliang envelope. Back in the U.S., he began years of searching through stamp markets, eventually securing a rare 1932 envelope sent from Kuliang to America — generously gifted by Singaporean postal history expert Hou Hongzhou.

That first envelope sparked an enduring quest. Within three years, Zhang collected 31 Kuliang-related envelopes and postcards. By 2015, during another visit to Fuzhou, he sent a postcard from Kuliang Post Office to his wife in the U.S., pledging to collect 100 such items. Today, Zhang's collection exceeds 170 envelopes and postcards, including registered, airmail, underpaid, returned and imported covers, creating a living archive of Kuliang's postal heritage.

To Zhang, the charm of Kuliang's postal history lies not only in the artifacts but also in the human stories they carry. Pointing to a treasured envelope, he shared its tale: a "curled-dragon cover" sent in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) from Kuliang to California by Milton Gardner's mother. The envelope bears a Kuliang postmark and a wax seal engraved with the Chinese character "嘉" (Jia), the Gardner family name used in China.

Today, Zhang's journey continues. He hopes to use postal history as a bridge to tell the story of friendship between China and the world through Kuliang, inspiring more people to discover the unique charm of this place.

Kuliang Post Office [Photo/FZ Evening News]