French post office issues Chinese New Year stamps

French post office, La Poste, on Saturday issued two stamps to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, which starts on Jan. 22.

Featuring a crouching rabbit on a pink background, one stamp applies to the domestic mail service in France with a face value of 1.16 euros (1.26 U.S. dollars). The other, a rabbit looking up on the background of the moon, applies to the international mail service with a denomination of 1.8 euro (1.96 U.S. dollar).

The stamps, designed by Chinese artist Chen Jianghong, are marked with "The Year of The Rabbit" characters in both Chinese and French.

Since 2005, the French post office has been celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year each year by issuing stamps featuring the year's zodiac animal.