这是一件为纪念2003年4月15日中国伊朗联合发行2003-6T “钟楼与清真寺” 邮票而特制的首日封。笔者于首发当天寄给一位德国朋友之后回收并收藏。不过它还带有一些德国邮政的故事。

这件首日封是用南京生产的普通DL 5号信封，尺寸为220X110毫米。正面左下角带有一个南京标志的红色辟邪图案。除去邮寄地址外，加贴一枚中国挂号签条，编号为RR250690167CN。其下有一个红色的航空邮戳，边纸上分别印有“北京邮票厂 047411A”和“北京邮票厂 047211A”的文字。正面顶部加盖有 南京 鼓楼20 2003.0.15.19的1枚黑色发出日戳。在信封的背面贴了“钟楼与清真寺” 邮票的两个带有边纸的四方联，每个四方联上盖有一个和正面相同的黑色发出日戳。为补足11.9元的标准邮资，在右下角还加贴了2枚面值各为50分和500分的长城系列普通邮票，其上也盖了1枚同样的黑色日戳。

这件首日封在德国朋友寄回时，由于某种原因（也可能是德国邮政所为，见下面说明）被从中间折叠起来存放，但整件邮品品相完好，背面的四方联分列两侧未被折叠。

这里要说的故事就是德国朋友寄回时附加的一个手写的英文说明。这个说明写在一张蓝色的77X77毫米的卡片上。上面写道：“Dear friend! Our P.O. had problems again with reading the address in this letter. They had to check it and sent it to me about 2 weeks late. I wrote this story to my stamp magazine and I hope they are printing in the next issue." (中译文是：亲爱的朋友！我们的邮局在读这封信的地址时又出了问题。他们在核对以后大约在两周以后才把信交给我。我给我的集邮杂志写了这个故事并且希望在下一期可以发表。“ 我可以理解他的不满，因为我知道这样的事确实不止一次了。按照日耳曼民族的认真精神，这样的事一再发生在德国确实是难以原谅的。这个收信地址我已经使用多年，为了防止以前发生过的类似问题，后来在信封上除了手写收信人地址之外，我还特意加贴打印的地址。上面文字清清楚楚，老是出这样的事的确不应该。我的这位朋友（我通常叫他老柴，关于他的许多故事请见这里）是一位多年的集邮爱好者，他还是德国盖默灵(Germering) 市集邮俱乐部的领导成员（下图是老柴发来的一张照片，这是盖默灵市集邮俱乐部为了纪念该市邮政100周年而举行的一个纪念活动后的合影，最左面就是老柴。右起第二人是该市市长布朗博士）。我们的友谊至今已持续了近20年，关于这次活动的详情请见此页

为了便于集邮爱好者研究这些问题，在这一组邮件中我将老柴的说明和他同时寄来的一件德国邮政的塑料袋一并附上（见下面第3-5图）。上面有一些德国邮政的信息仅供有心人参考。

This is a special First Day Cover for commemorate the "Bell tower and mosque" stamps amde by me, it was sent to my German friend Mr. Chilan and It also comes with some Ger man post's stories. It uses the Nanjing production of DL 5 normal envelope, size is 220X110 m.m. There is a China registered label and a Nanjing city's symbol--exorcise evil spirits in the its front; Stick 2 sets of 8 pieces "Bell tower and mosque" stamps ( 2 block of four) in its back, and also 2 other stamps for make up the postage of international air and registered letter (11.9 yuan RMB). There are 3 China first day issued postmarks. It is strange that without common German yelow registered postmark. (In general, in all the registered letter or postcard sent to German by me, will be added a corresponding German post yelow registered label. See here or here)

When return the folded FDC, Mr. Chilian attached a hand written English note in a blue 77x77 m.m. card:"Dear friend! Our P.O. had problems again with reading the address in this letter. They had to check it and sent it to me about 2 weeks late. I wrote this story to my stamp magazine and I hope they are printing in the next issue." I can understand his dissatisfaction, because I know that such a thing is really more than once. According to the serious spirit of the Germanic peoples, such things happen again and again in Germany is difficult to forgive. My friend is an old philatelist (about his many stories see here), he is a leading member of philatelic Club in Germering city of German (See below photo, The first left is Chilian. About the photo see here)