The third floor of the Taishan Classic Car Museum contains all sorts of 4×4’s and military vehicles from around the world.
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Trip Report: Taishan Classic Car Museum (Part 2)
The second floor of the Taishan Classic Car Museum consists mainly of cars from China and the USSR. Everything from old Hongqis to an example of almost every Shanghai model and all sorts of glorious Soviet metal.
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Trip Report: Taishan Classic Car Museum (Part 1)
The Taishan Classic Car Museum is the second museum owned by Zhang Yonglong, the other being the Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum that I have covered previously. His Taishan Museum is located on the north shore of Tianyi Lake (天颐湖) in the Tianyi Lake Resort Area, about 20km south of Tai’an city. The museum itself is a massive 5-storey building with each floor having a distinct theme. The collection is diverse and contains some vehicles that are very seldom seen in other museums in China. It is definitely worth a visit!
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The story of Thunder Sky (Part 1)
Thunder Sky is a major player in the development and production of LiYePO4 Rare Earth Lithium Ion batteries. Thunder Sky started experimenting with electric vehicles around the turn of the last century by converting existing petrol powered cars to electric power. This included, as you shall discover from this article, everything from the humble Geo Metro to über collectible Hongqis. Join me as I take you on a journey to discover one of the most ambitious, ingenious and downright insane (in a good way) companies we will ever discuss here on the pages of China Car History. A journey so long it has to be split across two articles. The first shall cover all their vehicles prior to 2007 and the second everything after. Please note that right up until the day of publishing we were uncovering more and more vehicles produced by Thunder Sky and likely may find more in the future so these articles will more than likely be updated.
Trip Report: Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum (Part 4)
In today’s article I cover the third hall (what I will call Part 4) of the Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum. Around 25 cars are on display in this hall and there is a wide variety of cars on display.
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Trip Report: Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum (Part 3)
In today’s article I cover the first floor of the second hall (what I will call Part 3) at the Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum. This hall consists of all sorts of trucks, SUV’s, guns and a rather special bus. We start with a tractor, a lovely old lady and the 1RMB note.
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Trip Report: Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum (Part 2)
In today’s article I cover the second floor of the second hall (what I will call Part 2) at the Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum. This hall consists mostly of foreign cars, though one rather special and unique Chinese car does make an appearance!
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Trip Report: Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum (Part 1)
Car museums are opening up seemingly everyday in China, one of the ones I paid a visit to during my last few months in China was the Weifang Generations Classic Car Museum in Weifang, Shandong Province. This museum is one of two museums owned by Zhang Yonglong, the other one is located in Taishan, Shandong Province, a couple hours southwest of Weifang. I visited both and will cover the Taishan museum in later articles.
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Trip report: Jinan Classic Car Collection
Earlier this year I took a trip around China to visit friends and of course search for cars. I also visited several Car Museums and collections that I will cover over a series of articles. In today’s article I will cover a semi-private collection in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. I have also used the “gallery” feature available to us on this website for the first time so that the scrolling length of the article can be shorter whilst still containing all the photos of the individual cars. Be sure to scroll through the gallery for each car! Let me know what you think of this new feature and whether I should continue using it in future articles! I have covered the Chinese cars first and finished off with the foreign cars.
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The story of Xingtai 114 Auto Works
Xingtai 114 Auto Works was founded in 1969 in a village to the southeast of Xingtai. Xingtai 114 was one of three main automakers in Xingtai that I have covered so far, the other two being Red Star and Changzheng. Xingtai 114’s product line consisted mainly of SUV’s, pickup trucks and buses, as well as some conversions based on products from other manufacturers such as ambulances. Perhaps most interesting of all were the unique Dacias they produced, unlike anything seen in Romania. More on those a bit later.