A short story about the BJ212 based Tianjin postal vehicle.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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).
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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!