Jinggangshan and Dongfeng. Which one where? | ChinaCarHistory
By: Luo Wenrou (ChinaCarHistory About the History of Cars in China)
A bit of Chinese automotive history. I don't know if the Dongfeng is considered a classic.
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The Jinggangshan (the two-door prototype) from Beijing and the Dongfeng CA71 from FAW (First Auto Works) were made in 1958. Both prototypes are still existing.
The original Dongfeng CA71 at the Museum of the Communist Party, Beijing. Photo Erik van Ingen Schenau.
This is the car which is generally regarded as the first Dongfeng CA71, and by official sources, also the first Chinese car. Before, the car was stored in the FAW Warehouse, later the car was exhibited in the FAW Cultural Pavilion. Now you can find the car at the Museum of the Communist Party.
To replace the Dongfeng in Changchun, FAW started in 2022 a joint research team of the FAW Group Corporation. The project was to make a Dongfeng replica. Here you see the result, finished in 2023:
The Dongfeng replica, made by FAW to replace the original in the FAW Pavilion in Changchun. Another photo of the Dongfeng CA71 replica, made by FAW. The Simca Versailles 1*04954 used by FAW as an example for the first Dongfeng.
There are rumors that the second surviving Dongfeng, exhibited by Luo Wenrou, is not an original car, as we always have thought, but a (Simca-based) replica.
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Dongfeng CA71, Veteran Car Museum Huairou (Beijing), replica or original?
Well, the CA71 from FAW (the original) has only one windshield wiper, the left one. Luo Wenyou's Dongfeng has two wiper axles in stead of one, like a Simca. Who knows?
There are other rumors that more Dongfeng's, made in 1959, were just rebadged Simca's.
There exists one photo with 5 Dongfengs’s:
: 
Five Dongfeng, a Heping, a Jinggangshan.
According FAW information, a number of 20-30 Dongfeng cars was made. I doubt it.
In 1956, 21 Simca Versailles were imported in China.
21 Simca Versailles on the road to China, in East Berlin, 1956. Photo Horst Stummer, Bundesarchiv.
When I visited Luo Wenyou in June 2024, he showed me another Simca in restoration process. A new Dongfeng replica?
Making replica's (copies) of earlier cars is not something happening only in China: in 2023 Mercedes Benz made 100 copies of their 1886 Motorwagen.
We know the existence of two more Dongfeng replica's, the one in the Beijing Auto Museum and the one in the Taishan Classic Car Museum.
Dongfeng replica, GAZ Volga M21 based, at the Beijing Auto Museum.
Besides of the official photos we have a seldom picture of a Dongfeng in the street, here it is, license plate 07-00022:
Do9ngfeng CA71, license plate 07-00022, Heilongjiang province. Dongfeng CA71 with sligthly different (more square) grille, besides of the first Hongqi prototype.
And now about the JINGGANGSHAN.
I visited the BAIC headquarters also in June, BAIC= Beijing Auto Industry Corporation, (be careful, the exhibition is only for party members, so you need an invitation or introduction), to meet the Jinggangshan replica.
Big surprise: the Jinggangshan which is exhibited at BAIC is the original prototype, not the replica.
Jinggangshan two-door prototype, exhibited at the BAIC Exhibition Hall, 2024.
I had already seen this vehicle in 1997. The car was then stored in the BAW factory facilities (Beijing Auto Works). Later it was sold to a private person. And now, back to BAIC! When I asked to see the replica, they told me that it was at the BAIC Design department, which is not open for visitors.
In 1997 I asked to see the engine, I wanted to know if it was a Volkswagen engine. They told me that they couldn't open the rear, as the key was missing.
Now, 27 years later, I had a chance to ask again. This time the trunk lid was closed and stuck with adhesive tape. So I tried to see the engine from under.
No success, there is a plate covering the whole engine. You can't see the engine from below.
The production version of the Jinggangshan was a four-door.
The Four-door Jinggangshan. Drawing by Ivan Kolev. There is no car existing anymore.
They invited me to sit behind the steering wheel. I think I am the only foreigner allowed behind the wheel of the first Dongfeng and of the first Jinggangshan!
Behind the steering wheel of the Jinggangshan Two-door prototype. June 2024.
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Four wheels and shiny on top. What more can a guy want?
I really have no idea whatsoever as to why you would be at all interested in posting this article. In my 18 years here I've never seen anything like those cars on the road. Most of the cars I've seen are probably no more than 3 years old, although some could be a little bit older.
By the way, do you know how to pronounce "Dongfeng"? Don't cheat by checking the internet. Dongfeng is the name of the town in Henan Province closest to Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Zen Kung Fu. Here I am in front of Shaolin Temple. Twisting Bob Dylan's line "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now" I can say that I was so much fatter then, I'm thinner than that now. LOL.
China has over a century of history with automobiles. Apparently China began manufacturing its own automobiles in the 1950s. That is part of Chinese culture and history. Apparently there are auto museums in China that are attempting to attract tourists.
China has been following the same pattern of automobile manufacturing as Japan and South Korea. Chinese auto manufacturers are now moving to foreign factory countries which means they won't be creating as many jobs in China.
China has a huge car market, and the consumers trade their cars in often, so the car manufacturers are not going to close their factories in China or fire their workers, they are simply opening factories in other countries to provide to the consumers there, i.e. they are growing elsewhere.
That's good because Mexico will be supplying the US market. Yes, the profits will go to Chinese oligarchs but the jobs will go to Mexicans (or illegal immigrants).
China really has made progress adopting and expanding the neoliberal form of capitalism.
Yes, China isn't the "From each according to their ability: to each according to their needs" Marxism it's accused of.