The post office has changed envelope standards to make it easier for foreigners and postmen, the Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday.

The provincial post office said it would install a new standard in June, which would improve envelope paper quality and forbid advertisements printed on envelopes.

There were also fewer sizes of envelopes under the new standard with domestic mail envelopes going from 10 sizes to five. Overseas mail users will have a new envelope size to choose from.

The place for stamp and the label for "airmail" will be translated into English in new envelopes for foreigners' convenience.

A spokesman for the Guangzhou Post Office said more than 65 percent letters processed in its mail service center could not be identified by distribution machines because of low quality envelope paper. The new envelopes will help distribute letters faster.

The new envelope standard was announced last year, and all post offices or newsstands already stopped selling the old standard envelopes from December last year.

It is the third time China has changed its standard for envelopes since 1978.

(Shenzhen Daily May 20, 2005)