About the History of Cars in China
Officially the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 with the death of Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong. But in the last years before the end there was already a turnaround in car styling. Forgotten were the heavy ‘no-nonsense’ Cultural Revolution bodies. Suddenly there was a look direction east and the new designs were strongly influenced by the lighter Japanese car styling of that era.
Continue reading “Japanese car styling at the end of the Cultural Revolution.”
You would not expect this but the mass movement periods in China were very creative for the development of the car industry. I already described the birth of many protypes during the Great Leap Forward period 1958-1961. The styling in that period was much influenced by contemporary American styling.
Continue reading “The design of cars during the Cultural Revolution.”
This article gives an overview of the more unknown products developed in the period 1958-1961. Styling was strongly influenced by contemporary American styling. Continue reading “Development of cars during the Great Leap Forward.”
Li Shufu’s first car was not a Daihatsu Charade copy but a Mercedes-Benz!
Read here how mr. Li started with taking photos of tourists with a Seagull camera to end up as the owner of five car manufacturers.
Continue reading “Li Shufu, mr. Geely, and the first car he made; a Mercedes Benz!”
This is the rear of car which looks like a Toyota Crown S130 but which is in fact a Great Wall CC1020s!
Continue reading “About the cars made by Great Wall: a history before their official history.”
In 1980 the Englishman Oliver Barnham travelled through China and took pictures of every local made vehicle he could find. He took pictures of a BJ212-style jeep in Chonqging and Shanghai.
Both cars had military plates.