Official seal

In 2007, the remote Guiye village in Jinping county of Southwest China's Guizhou province caught national fame when villagers divided an official seal into five parts. Four village representatives and a member of the village committee each holds a part of the seal that is engraved with the words "Approved by Villagers 'Financial Team, Guiye village, Pingqiu town". When the village plans on an expenditure, it needs at least three seal-holders' agreement before the seal is put together and the spending can be approved. When publicized by the media, this seal is dubbed as "the most powerful official seal in Chinese history". It is said that no villager has ever doubted how the village committee uses their money since the seal was divided. Official seal is very powerful in China. Every Chinese will encounter the day when getting a seal of approval S as hard as climbing onto the clouds. Sometimes, one needs to reach some 100 government departments for a seal of approval before achieving anything. In a gesture of serving the people, the government has offered the so-called "all-in-all service". In a spacious hall, one can get all the signatures from various agencies in a matter of hours. The official seal is a symbol of power. in this respect, it reminds people of the emperors' imperial seals that were generally made of jade. There have been many reports about frauds involving fake seals. One story goes that a man solicited marriage in a TV program. At the end of his love letter, he would affix an official seal from a certain unit where he said he was working. Several women were cheated by this simple trick, proving the power of the seal.