Receiving a postcard that takes three months to reach you may seem pointless, but card postmark from the South Pole may make the waiting worthwhile.

Beijing Post on Wednesday issued two "antarctic postcards", which will be delivered to recipients via the South Pole, Wednesday's Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The postcards are sold at 5 yuan (US$0.735) each. One, picturing two penguins snuggling up to each other, is a Saint Valentine's Day special and the other, picturing a group of penguins, is for standard greetings.

Postcard senders are advised to write the correct address of the recipient, post code and return address on the postcards and post them into the "antarctic mail boxes" set up at the city's post stations. The "antarctic mail boxes" will be closed on February 28.

The postcards will travel to the South Pole and be postmarked Zhongshan station or Kunlun station, two Chinese antarctic research stations. They will return to China in April with a Chinese Antarctic expedition team and at which point they will be delivered to the recipients.

The 28-strong Chinese expedition team left Shanghai for the South Pole last October. Their key task is to build the Kunlun research station at Dome A, the continent's highest peak at 4,093 meters above sea level. The new research station is China's third station in Antarctica after the Changcheng Station and Zhongshan Station.

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2009)