Changbaishan (Baitoushan)

The volcano also goes by the name of Paektu-san in Korea and Hakuto in Japan.

One of the four volcanoes in the Smithsonian Catalog with a VEI eruption magnitude of 7.

The volcano is located on the border between the PRC and North Korea, in fact the national boundaries were changed such that the border now runs through the center of the caldera.

The crater lake, "Tian Chi", is held sacred by the Korean people's since it is the source of the major rivers that run through that country.

The volcano was "discovered" as a result of a peralkaline ash that was found on the Japanese Islands and traced back to China across the Sea of Japan. Such peralkaline materials are unique to the volcano in eastern Asia.

Although not as popular or as well known as Fuji, it is featured on the stamps of North Korea, South Korea, Manchukuo (Manchuria) and the People's Republic of China.

It's frequent appearance on North Korean stamps is perhaps in part due to the fact that Kim Jong Il was born there, or at least, is officially announced as having been born there.

The summit caldera, depicted in the upper left stamp below is approximately 6 miles across, about the same size as Crater Lake, Oregon.

The maxi-cards illustrated below depict the same four stamps.

And yet another view of same stamps on first day cover

Below shows text on back of first day cover

 



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