The French post offices in China were among the post offices maintained by foreign powers in China from the mid-19th century until 1922. The first civilian French Post Office in Shanghai, China opened in 1862. Initially, the French government used ordinary French postage stamps e.g. Napoleon III, Laureated Empire, Ceres and Sage issues for these offices. These forerunner stamps can be shown to have been sold or used in China only by a postmark. Stamps used at Shanghai prior to 1894, for example, can only be identified by diamond-shaped cancel made of a type referred to (in French) as a "losange à gros chiffres" with the numbers "5104" in the center of the cancel or a Shanghai c.d.s. There are actually two types of "5104" obliterators differ by the shape of the "4", one straight and the other curved.