Lanjian mini sedan from Qujing, Yunnan province.

Lanjian mini car taxi. Photo Wechat. License YunD T0834.

I don´t know how, but suddenly a batch of photos for sale showed up on Wechat. The origin was the Traffic Bureau of Qujing City, the photos were originally from the small blue car registration books. Among these automobiles was an unknown sedan.

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The last Citroën Visa´s.

The hall with the last Wuling Visa’s. Photo copyright Dorus Aarts, Liuzhou 1997.

A hall with the last Visa’s, 1997. I counted about 25 vehicles in this hall. The photos are made by Dorus Aarts., who gave me 16 pictures of the last ever made Citroën Visa’s, stored in a hall.
Not made in a Citroën factory in France, Spain or Portugal. But assembled in China, the pictures show the Wuling LZW7100 in Liuzhou city, Guangxi province.

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The Santana-look alike minicars of the 1990s.

One of the interesting periods of the Chinese automotive development were the 1990s; private car ownership was exploding and there were many companies who jumped into this market to make small family cars.

Fulai JHA7081 made in Chongqing. Photo Weibo.

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Some more 1950s minicars from Shanghai.

The secondhand book and photo website Kongfz.com is a wonderful source of old carbooks and photos. Recently a series of 10 photos of Haiyan minicars made in Shanghai appeared and your author took the chance to buy the photos. Here a preview.

Haiyan, from a photo collection on kongfz.com. Jeep style soft window covers.

This is a closed version of the Haiyan 730 Second model convertible of 1959.  Probably there was only one prototype. Note the small track width of the rear wheels.

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About the early developments of the Zhonghua plastic cars.

1985 Project BS111 under the flag of the Jingjinji Corporation, Beijing. Photo Automobile (Hong Kong) 1985-7-10.

These are the first two prototypes of the later Zhonghua plastic cars. The six young people on the roof prove the strength of the car.

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“New” old photos of the first generation of Chinese cars.

During my recent China travel, friends notified me of their new founds of the wonderful past of the Chinese automobile. Here are some, gathered by on Wechat. (a国 车志a)

Shanghai SH760A with the direction indicators within the grille line.
It looks like the man at the two different photos is the same person. So maybe there is only one car.

Shanghai SH760A with different grille (direction indicators within the grille). Photo Wechat.

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Intriguing: where is Mao’s hearse?

One of the intriguing projects is the Hongqi CA770 hearse, made in 1977.

It was the late Hongqi designer Lv Yanbin who made these drawings of a hearse, based on the Hongqi CA770 Station Wagon.

FAW Hongqi CA770 Hearse with internal cooling system. Drawing Lv Yanbin.

Th story was that the car was designed in 1977 to remove Mao’s body from the Mao Mausoleum when the Soviet Union was going to attack Beijing. The car would have been stored underneath the Mausoleum, in a part of the so-called Beijing Underground City.

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