The expansion of the Chinese National Postal Service after the inauguration in 1897 had  bought to an array of cancellations and cancellation types throughout the period. It was especially so during the mid CIP period to the end of Ching Dynasty where offices had grown from the original handful to thousands, including Sub-Offices, Postal Agencies and Letter boxes. Large varieties of cancellation could be found canceling these stamps. To simplify the task of identification, major characteristics are used to group the similar cancellations into types. Covers of various types of cancellations could be found on the following pages and the followings are a list of the varies types found.

Customs cancellations especially those of Soochow was commonly used in the early CIP period. Some Customs cancellations like Foochow, Tientsin and Peking had the word "CUSTOMS" removed and was used until very late in the Dynasty.

Dollarchop cancellations continued to be used by a few towns throughout the CIP period. Examples from Foochow Dollarchop are numerous.

Like the Dollarchops, some Pa-kaus were used until the Republics. The Pa-kau from towns like Anking, Juian, etc were only used during the CIP period and early usage were extremely scarce.

Oval bi-lingual cancellations was used only for a few short years. It first came in use in 1899. Examples of Peking and Kiaochow are the most common of all the oval cancellations.

Bi-lingual cancellations was the most vastly used standard cancellation types. It was first used in 1899 from most of the treaty ports. Its usage expanded to many other towns and lasted until the late Republics. The following are examples from a few less common towns.

This is another vastly used types of cancellations. It used the two Chinese characters year and Chinese lunar calendar dates. Examples are found from 1904 until 1917.

The tombstone cancellations were wooden obliterator made locally and it typically carries the post office town name on it. Letterbox tombstone cancellations differs by not having the three Chinese characters 'post office' on the cancellation. A great varieties existed and are too numerous to list them all. Only a few examples from the main group of post offices, sub-offices, agencies and letter boxes are shown.

There were types of cancellations that were used by towns in that province only. These regional cancellations are most interesting but examples are not as common and most were used only for a short time.

Cancellation types not listed above could be listed in this category. There are numerous examples and their shapes are usually round or oval.

Registered cancellations are common on CIP issues, especially on the 5 cents & 10 cents stamps.

Many other cancellations (transit marks, receiving cancellations, instructional marking, etc) can also be found used on the CIP issue. The following are just a few examples of these vast category.