A short story about the BJ212 based Tianjin postal vehicle.
In 1983 I made my first travel inside China. My dear friend Oliver Barnham stimulated me to come to Hong Kong and he advised me to make a four week solo trip in a country which was not used to see a single travelling tourist.
So I went to China, equipped with my faithful, heavy East German Practica single lens reflex camera. Yes, I would have loved a Canon, already at that time popular, but the East Germans were much cheaper.
At the last moment before the trip, Oliver came up with a lovely light, small, up-to-date Japanese camera, that he lent me.
During the trip I made photos. I shot 19 rolls with 36 shots each. Mostly with the easy to handle and light Japanese. And then I came back to Hong Kong.
Yes, at that days Hong Kong was the entrance gate of China, you literally walked into China via the Lo Wu border bridge.
And in Hong Kong the drama unfolded. Of the photos taken with the Japanese camera, about 90% were black. The battery operated shutter had not opened. Painful.
In the years after, I took my revenge, I made another 42 China travels in 35 years, making thousands of photos.
But now back to 1983. One of the many places I visited was Shanghai, and at the Suzhou Creek there was the old post office, not far from the Shanghai Mansions (many times changed of names, but now Broadway Mansions again).
And there I saw (and photographed) several square 4×4 postal vehicles, clearly Beijing BJ212 based. I can’t show these photos, as they belong to the lost ones, but happy enough I saw another car in Qingdao.
I wrote down in 1983: Tianjin-made 4×4 for postal services, based upon BJ212. Some have Beijing characters on the front. Factory: Tianjin Post & Telegraph Machinery Factory. Some old and crude, some new and good looking.
These cars intrigued me, but I never saw one back.
Until I ordered and received boxes full of second hand Chinese car books.
And there she was: Tianjin YZ212 in a 1990-book called “Motor Vehicle Model Manual” (Jidongche chexing youce).
Some info:
Construction year 1980, two-seater, LxWxH 4170x1850x1970mm, wheelbase 2300mm, tyres 6.50×16, load 500kg, empty weight 1690kg, gross vehicle weight 2190kg.
And so, at least this story, had a happy end!