About China's Coolest Cars
Here we have my very own Beijing-Jeep Cherokee BJ7250, photographed in Beijing on a cold and smoggy winter’s day.
It was 16-01-2013 and I took my Jeep to the Agricultural Exhibition Center in Beijing. Back in those days you could drive your car straight up the main hall when there wasn’t any exhibition. No way today! Anyway. I parked my Jeep bang in front of the main hall.
Continue reading “My Beijing-Jeep Cherokee BJ7250 City Special”
A taxi car-washing place, seen in the not-so far east of the Chinese capital Beijing in 2011. In those days, the mandatory color was yellow, with taxi companies allowed to choose a second color.
The yellow shirt for taxi drivers was, and still is, mandatory as well. This famous shirt-rule came into effect in 2007 in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A dark blue Volkswagen Santana Variant, seen near Ikea in Beijing in 2009. The license plate reads 京E·04444. In Chinese culture and tradition, 4 is a very unlucky number, comparable with 13 in the West.
Most people therefore prefer to avoid a 4 on their license plate, fearing bad luck. The driver of this car is not so superstitious, he got himself four fours! That’s bad luck².
The Volkswagen Santana Variant station wagon was made by Shanghai-Volkswagen from 1987 until 2013, yes you read that right. It was a very popular carrier and today it has achieved somewhat of a cult status. Deservedly so!
Also note the Sinopec 2008 Olympics sticker on the left side of the window, this was for a nation-wide sponsored competition in 2007, just before the start of the Beijing Olympics. Whoever had the sticker on their car could win huge prizes. There was a TV show about it and what not.
Also, in the background, a Beijing subway train.
A brown donkey pulling a two-wheel carriage, seen in 2011 in the far east of Beijing. The carriage carries a load of bricks, a gentleman with a reins, and a little lady fast asleep.
This is an ultra are Beijing Commercial Vehicle BJ2020M, a hard-top 4×4 off-road vehicle. The one we saw was fully loaded with dealer accessories. Including: a three-phase bull bar, flag poles, side bars, ultra shiny wheel covers, roof-mounted mirrors, and for spotlights on that same roof. A dream as much a car a dream can be.
Continue reading “A Wondrous White Beijing Commercial Vehicle BJ2020M”
This beauty is a very rare BAM BJ2020SA, a two-door 4×4 off-road vehicle. I saw it in Beijing all the way back in 2003, just across the street from the Workers’ Stadium. The building on the left has long been razed to the ground and replaced by something new, and recently the stadium went down as well! Note the purple trousers and the old 京C license plate. Continue reading “A Rare BAM BJ2020SA in Yellow Brown In Beijing”
A truly rare car for China this is. A light blue Moskvitch Aleko 2141S, seen at a small car repair shop in north Beijing, back in 2011. The good Moskvitch was very dusty and looked neglected. Staff at the store told me they were planning to restore it. Well, they always say that when I ask…
Here we have a pretty white car with a long and complicated name. This indeed is a Citroen ZX Shenglong Fukang 1.6i AX, seen in Beijing in 2018, painted in white with the factory wheel covers.
Continue reading “A White Citroen ZX Shenlong-Fukang 1.6i AX In China”
Here we have a big Dongfeng truck, in the correct worker’s blue, loaded with about a hundred crates of delicious Yanjing beer, standing in front of a restaurant in central Beijing.
I saw the truck in 2007, when Yanjing beer bottles still contained 0.645 liter of easy drinkable beer with an alcohol percentage of 3.6%. In my good old days I drunk a truck of the stuff each week. Sadly, most Chinese beermakers have since changed their bottle size to the internationally more acceptable 0.5 liter.
The Dongfeng was already an oldie in 2007, and it was clearly not having an easy day with its heavy load of booze! I love the frames on the sides, with reflective 3M tape, intended to prevent bicyclist from ending up underneath. Cheers old Dongfeng, hope you are still around somewhere.
Back in the summer of the great year 2004, I was invited to the launch event of Dutch supercar maker Spyker in China. The company shipped in a beautiful Spyker C8 Spyder, painted in purple with a red-beige interior. It was unveiled to the media at the capital’s famous Zhengyangmen Gate.
