The stamp features a monkey holding a pair of babies. [Photo: XINHUA]

　　China's newly issued lunar New Year stamp has become a topic for its design that coincidentally echoes with the country's new two-child policy.

　　On one of the two stamps, released by China Post on Tuesday to mark the Year of the Monkey, a monkey holds a pair of baby monkeys in its arms while the twins kiss their parent.

　　The stamp, entitled "Fu Shou Shuang Zhi," or "Here Comes both Fortune and Longevity," conveys the idea of family reunion, Beijing newspaper the Mirror quoted a China Post official as saying.

　　According to the report, China Post suggested that the stamp feature a fully grown monkey holding a little monkey to represent family affection, but the designer, Huang Yongyu, made it two.

　　China has just bid farewell to its decades long one-child policy thanks to the new Family Planning Law, which went into effect on Jan. 1.

　　The source with China Post said it was just "a coincidence" because the new law hadn't been amended when Huang began his design last year, according to the Beijing News.

　　The two-child policy was first announced by the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Oct. 29, 2015. The change of policy is intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an aging population, according to a communique issued after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

　　Still some netizens said such an interpretation shows people's wishes for welcoming the new policy.

　　The other stamp in the set, "Ling Hou Xian Rui," or "monkey brings good luck," shows a smiling monkey, clinging to a tree holding a peach. Peaches are symbolic of longevity.

　　Huang, 92, a Chinese master painter, is also the designer of China's first edition of "Golden Monkey" stamps issued in 1980. Since then, China has been issuing stamps on the theme of the lunar calendar every year to mark the 12 Chinese astrological signs.

　　Five million of Huang's "Golden Monkey" stamps were released for circulation in 1980, but they are very rare now.

　　In recent years, Chinese zodiac stamps have become increasingly popular among stamp collectors. As the first of its kind, the 1980 "Golden Monkey" stamps are sought-after items, with one set sold for a record price at an auction in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, in 2011.

　　The complete sheet of 80 "Golden Monkey" stamps was auctioned for 1.2 million yuan (180,000 U.S. dollars) at the 2011 Suzhou Auction for Rare Stamps, while a single stamp went for 10,000 yuan, 125,000 times more than its face value of 0.8 yuan (about 12 U.S. cents).

　　The new monkey stamps, which each costs 1.20 yuan, have attracted much attention, with collectors lining up outside post offices ahead of the release.

　　Customers can, for the first time, reserve the stamps on China Post's official website, but many collectors still chose to queue, lest they miss out.

　　A post office in Shanghai sold its first set on Tuesday morning to a 59-year-old collector, who had waited in shifts with dozens of fellow enthusiasts since Dec. 27, 2015.

　　A total of 246,000 sets had been sold in Shanghai as of 10:30 on Tuesday morning, according to a local newspaper.

　　The Chinese Year of Monkey will begin on Feb. 8 this year.