About China's Coolest Cars
A Brilliance Junjie FRV, as seen in Beijing back in 2016. The Brilliance was in good shape, painted in a vague shade of silver blue with slightly darkened windows and the factory standard alloy wheels.
Continue reading “Brilliance Junjie FRV Of The Liberian Embassy In China”
A Senova X35 crossover, seen in Beijing in 2018. The X35 was in good shape and seemed well-maintained. It was painted white with a red interior. The black diplomatic license plates show that this car belongs to the Hungarian embassy.
Continue reading “Senova X35 Of The Hungarian Embassy In China”
A Changan BenBen Mini with diplomatic license plates, seen in Beijing in 2017. The good BenBen was painted in white and appeared to be in a fine shape.
Continue reading “Changan BenBen Mini Of The Embassy Of Serbia In Beijing”
A Volvo 740 GL, seen in the Dongzhimen area in Beijing in 2013. The Swedish sedan was in a reasonable shape but in dire need of some love, maintenance, and a proper cleanup.
Continue reading “Volvo 740 GL Of The Embassy Of Palestine In Beijing”
A Toyota Crown Super Saloon 3.0 Twin Cam 24 sedan, seen in central Beijing in 2017. The Crown is painted in white, a relatively rare color for this great Japanese sedan.
The eight generation S130 Toyota Crown was manufactured from 1987 until 1995, in Nagoya, Japan. The Super Saloon was the second-most luxurious trim level after the Royal Saloon. It was powered by a 24 valve 3.0 liter six-in-line engine with 204 hp and 265 Nm, sending horses to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic.
This particular car belonged, or perhaps still belongs, to the Vietnamese embassy. Like in most countries, cars used by foreign embassies have special license plates in China. In the capital Beijing, diplomatic license plates start with the character 使 (shi), is short for 大使馆 dashiguan, meaning embassy.
Each embassy has its own 3-digit number. In this case the number is 228, which stands for Vietnam. The next 3 digits are the car number. The ambassador’s official car is always 001 but there are no specific rules for the other numbers, and plates may be carried over from car to car. Our Toyota Crown has car number 039, which means that the license plate, when it was issued, was for the 39th car used by the Vietnamese embassy.
A wondrous white E34 BMW 5-series sedan, seen parked in the Sanlitun embassy district in central Beijing in 2013. The good Bimmer was in a fine shape, with a clean body but in need of a little love and maintenance.
Continue reading “A Wondrous White BMW 5 Series Of The Cameroon Embassy In Beijing”
A Rolls-Royce Ghost with an embassy license plate in Beijing. In China, the first three numbers on an embassy plate indicate the country.
In this case, 121 stands for the Kingdom of Cambodia. The Rolls-Royce likely belongs to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni who, like his father before him, is known to spend a lot of his time in Beijing.
