Tajikistan - My First New Country of 2009

Well my country collection increased by one today. It now stands at 210. I received a postcard from Tajikistan, making it 210 different countries from which I have now received a stamped and mailed postcard. The card was sent around the middle of December by David H, who lives in the city of Khujand. The card shows a couple of Folk Masters carving some wooden bowls, pots and spoons. Tajikistan is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. It borders Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and the People's Republic of China. It became an independent country in 1991 and has its capital at Dushanbe. As mentioned my card is from Khujand, the 2nd largest city of Tajikistan. It is situated on the Syr Darya River. The city's population is around 150,000. David used 4 stamps, 2 face different. The 3 stamps on the left are from a set of 6 definitives issued in 2007. The stamp on the right was issued in 2005 and is from a set of 12 featuring different fruits. Thanks David.
This now completes the Asia part of my collection. But there is still a big world out there. Depending on what list one uses for completeness, I figure that I still have 46 more countries to go. But as I like to say , 210 is not bad .

One other card arrived today. It is from People's Republic of China and was sent by Postcrosser Jessie. It pictures a bronze statue of a turtle and a snake . I don't know what else to say about it except if the turtle takes one more step, it probably won't matter anymore. Jessie used a number of fine stamps. Starting from the left are 2 stamps, labels or stickers. I could not locate any information about them . They do not show any country name , at least in English and they also do not show a value. Any reader who may know something about these two items, feel free to let me know. The center stamp was issued in 2002 and is from a set of 6 featuring Zhu Da paintings. The next stamp was issued in 2007 , 1 of a set of 4 , featuring the architecture of historical city views. The last stamp, on the right , also was issued in 2007 and is from a set of 6 featuring scenes from the Beijing Opera. Thanks Jessie for this card.

All in all a good day. Any day that I receives a new country postcard is indeed a good day.
Thanks for reading, and leave a comment if you want.