Chunghwa Post Co., Ltd. is the official postal service of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). Chunghwa Post was a government agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications until 2003, when it was reorganized into a government-owned corporation. Its affiliation with the Universal Postal Union began in 1914, but ended in 1972 when it was replaced by China Post shortly after China's seat in the United Nations was handed over to the People's Republic of China. International reply coupons are not available to Taiwan, and mail is not delivered to or sent directly from Taiwan, but rather routed through third-party countries, with Japan Post as a major route facility for incoming mail sent from the Americas region. Under the name "Chinese Taipei", Taiwan is a member of Fédération Internationale de Philatélie and Inter-Asian Philatelic Federation. It also provides a savings account service. Facilities Chunghwa Post delivers standard letters, registered mail, parcels, and express mail throughout Taiwan. There are twenty-three large offices throughout the country which supervises some 1,300 smaller post offices. History Origins of Chunghwa Post The direct ancestor of Chunghwa Post is the Customs Post Office of the Qing Empire, established in 1878 by Li Hongzhang at the suggestion of the foreign powers, with branch offices in five major trading cities. On 20 March 1896, the Customs Post Office became the Great Qing Post, which in 1911 became independent of the customs service. On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, replacing the Qing Dynasty. The Great Qing Post changed its name to the Chunghwa Post "Chunghwa" is a transliteration of one of the names of China, which connotes the multi-ethnic nation under a unified culture of "China". Alternatively spelled "Zhonghua" (in pinyin transliteration), this term is part of the Chinese language name of both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. Early airmail service Chunghwa post had contracted with aviation groups such as China National Aviation Corporation and China Airways Federal to deliver airmail on the Shanghai-Hankow, Nanking-Peking, and the Hankow-Canton routes in early 1929. It was on the Nanking-Peking route, where renown early-20th century poet Xu Zhimo caught a flight, but died as the airmail-carrier plane operated by China Airways Federal under contract, crashed in rough weather. Early postal service in Taiwan In 1888, Liu Mingchuan, Qing Governor of Taiwan Province, established the Taiwan General Post Office (GPO) of the Great