Section 2 Organization Reform

In 1896, the Qing Post was setup after the approval by the Emperor GuangXu. In 1897, post office started to formally undertake its business. After 1898, post was popularized to inland according to the imperial edict of the Emperor Guangxu. By then, area within the jurisdiction of customs was called Post Area. The original post organization set up inside the customs was renamed as General Office of Post Area. Post organization set up inside post area was renamed as Branch Post Office. Customs Duty Official was appointed as the Post Administrator of the General Post Office to manage post in the post area. In Beijing, Beijing General Office was set up to administrate the General Post Offices in post areas. By then post was just set up and was in deficit in general. But post office in inland areas was in surplus because there were less foreign employees and more Chinese employees which decrease the cost. Therefore post was popularized rapidly to inland areas.

In 1905, post developed greatly, customs duty officials of major ports were busy in their work, and had no effort to administrate post. So it was decided to appoint others as post officials in 5 ports of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Hankou and Tianjin. To save manpower and expenditure, some modifications were made toward post areas. Some minor post areas were merged, some general post office was relocated at the province, tending to manage the provincial post. In 1910, post areas were re-divided by administration area. There were total 14 general post offices, 39 subordinate general post offices. The characters of such division were that general offices of post areas were basically set up in province capitals, but not in each province. For example, in the 3 eastern provinces, the general office was set up in Shenyang, which administrate 5 subordinate general offices of Harbin, Changchun, Andong, Jinzhou Fu and Yingkou. Beijing General Office spanned Zhili, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang and Mongolian area, which administrated subordinate general offices in Kaifeng (capital of Henan province), Taiyuan (capital of shanxi province), Xian (capital of Shanxi province), Lanzhou (capital of Gansu province), Kulun of Mongolian area, Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang) and Tianjin of Zhili. There was no general office in the capital of Anhui, only subordinate general offices was set up in Wuhu and Datong. The two office were under the administration of Naming General Office, which was led by an official in Anqing, capital of Anhui.

By then, subordinate relations of post had changed. From 1866 when post was set up in customs to 1896 when official post office of the Qing Dynasty was set up, post had been under the administration of the Prime Office. In 1901, the Prime Office was changed into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Consequently post belonged to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1906, Duty Department was set up, post was also under the command of the Duty Official. In the same year, the Qing Dynasty was prepared to change into constitutional government and carried out reform on official system, establishing the Ministry of Post, which administrated business of ship, road, post and electricity. But the transferring of post was greatly obstructed, which lasted several years and through many discussions. By 191 1 before Emperor Xuantong resigned, it was transferred from the customs to the Ministry of Post. The General Post Administration Bureau which administrated post all over the country was set up, The situation lasted for tens of years that post was operated by customs finally ended.