By Du Guodong

Rare stamps to mark the 35th anniversary of the Soviet Union's October Revolution.

The 2009 World Stamp Exhibition is set to kick off on April 10, 2009, in Luoyang, Henan Province.

The exhibition will last seven days and is expected to draw 600,000 visitors to view the more than 3,000 rare stamps that will be exhibited from the 63 registered countries.

Held once a year, the festival is a big draw for stamp experts and collectors. The climax of this year's festival will be the auctioning of more than 800 Chinese stamps that range from the Qing Dynasty to the contemporary China. Qing Dynasty stamps have long been a favorite of collectors and this year's auction will feature more than 300 pieces from the era.

Among the stamps being auctioned are several particularly rare stamps that have never appeared at auction in China. The most valuable pieces include two sailing boat stamps issued during the Republic of China (1912-1949), and several rare stamps to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Soviet Union's October Revolution.

The 800 stamps schedule auction will be exhibited to the public on April 10 and then be auctioned off on April 12, 2009, in Luoyang. The exhibition's philatelic summit will open on April 11.

The 2009 World Stamp Exhibition is sponsored by the International Federation of Philately, which holds an annual exhibition to promote the global cultural exchanges. AndChina Guardian Auctions Co., Ltd. is organizing this year's exhibition and auction.

“We successfully hosted the auction at the World Stamp Exhibition in 1999, and 10 years later, we are honored to be authorized to host the auction again,” said Wang Yannan, president of Guardian.

As a state-owned Chinese auction firm, China Guardian Auctions Co., Ltd is the earliest auction company on the Chinese mainland specializing in the sale of Chinese artwork. Established in May of 1993, China Guardian has hosted more than 300 auctions and sold more than 200,000 articles.