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Six-times World table tennis champion and 1992 Olympic gold medallist Jan-Ove Waldner has become the first living foreigner to appear on a Chinese postage stamp.
"There is an enormous demand for the stamps," Waldner told the Swedish news agency TT.
"They've already sold three million and they have 13 million more to sell.
"This is huge, it doesn't get much bigger than this in China. It's an honour to be on a stamp."
Swede Waldner is one of the best-known foreign sportsmen in China, where table tennis is hugely popular.
His career ended in 2012, at the age of 46, after almost 30 years and a series of world and European titles plus the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.
The late German socialist icon Karl Marx also once appeared on a Chinese stamp.
Image: Jan-Ove Waldner
Photograph: John Gichigi/Allsport