Real China

[OwdChina]

LOLs Tom..........you even removed the air con.....ha ha......that's genius that is.

We leave on the 19th.....goodbye China. This gives me 5 days to sit in the Paddy Field (Irish pub) drinking Strongbow and being drunk. Not sure of the next job yet but the words gas, oil, refinery, pipeline and west coast Oz being banded around lately. We'll see.

Anyhoos, outside the pub yesterday.......

The 2010 Asian Games is not far off and the powers that be have decided to clean up / renovate all the crappy buildings. About 50% of Guangzhou is covered with bamboo scafold and green netting, while an army of painters and brickies toil away trying to make it all look nice for the visiting spectators.

Nobody understands dipped beam here.

Kev.

[STUNO]

Keep them coming..China must be a fascinating place

[OwdChina]

A few more from work.

This says a lot really........

Rough n ready, oil everywhere.

Just so's you know, these are X-ray scans and they're very very good. The Chinese know what's inside all packages going into China, and some that are just passing through the hub goin elsewhere.

Qwality !

The picture sez it all, another huge cock-up.

This guy's fittin CCTV. The trick is to climb the wrong ladder, then while carrying a heavy control unit, cross over to the other ladder and install. Health & safety...erm no.

Kev.

[OwdChina]

Decided to try a diferent route to work one day......and came across this.

Painted road, the lights work, everything finished up to the point where the road just stops !!!!!

Seem to remember a better example of this aswell. Thinks.

[OwdChina]

Here's the other one. Just the same, all finished. If i lived here i,d be a tad worried.

Kev.

[Mr Lobster]

Great pictures, thanks for posting. Really interesting to see this sort of thing.And yes, if I lived in that house ^ I'd be getting a bit worried!

[ChinaTom]

I guarantee that the house was built by a consortium of local farmers with spare bricks as they had seen a plan for the area. Compulsory purchase - easy money.

[OwdChina]

You may be right there Tom. There did seem to be a lot of newish buildings in the direction the road is pointing.

[STUNO]

Just hijacking this thread for a moment.

 

Great Wall SUV's and utilities are on sale here, very cheap too !

Are they any good

A little edit to show what we are getting...

$27000..

 

$29000..

 

ant toyota RAV 4 is $48500..

[OwdChina]

Ive seen a few of those, a copy Jeep type thing, mostly finished in bright yellow. I've no idea how durable they are......but they will be basic & easy to fix. CT will know more.edit; just had a walk to where one was parked down the lane, but it's missing.

[Tayne]

.

[ChinaTom]

The current generation of Great Wall (ChangCheng) motors are actually passable in terms of quality and safety. But as a result they are no longer cheap as chips. They have always been designed for the Chinese market, and had not until very recently been considered as export eligible (outside developing Asia anyway)

 

The old generation of GW cars served the requirement of the day in China - get people into their own cars - get small businesses in line with the relatively new freedom to travel around.

 

But you know how quickly things move in that country - there is a new network of proper roads linking about 90% of second, third and fourth tier settlements (UK comparison would be Peterborough, March and Outwell) whereas only 5 years ago you would rely on very poor unsurfaced roads and tracks. The first generation GW motors were fine on these poor roads, but now there is perfect blacktop, drivers go faster and further. But as the farmers also walk their livestock to market on these roads, and the 10mph tractors (usually with no lights or brakes) chug along them too, safety on these roads has not really improved. Rural folk don't appreciate that there are rules for driving and therefore are likely to cause horrific accidents. So, now all Chinese car manufacturers are moving with the times and improving their cars a lot. The prices are reflecting that, but China's income levels are increasing at roughly the same rate for most GW customers.

 

The 4x4 (called the Hover) is actually OK - only the interior design and quality is naff. I looked at buying a diesel version, but I bottled out. You can even get a stretch version!!!

 

 

So, they are unlikely to be popular anywhere else in the world. The equivalent price to NZ$27k in Chinese currency would be 132k RMB. You could buy 2 and a half of them in China for that!

[STUNO]

Thanks Tom, I don't know if anyone is buying these but had assumed they were of passable quality. I have seen the earlier horrific crash tests and thought things must have progressed or they would not have been able to export them, I just had visions of them going all banana shaped etc.

[ChinaTom]

Thanks Tom, I don't know if anyone is buying these but had assumed they were of passable quality. I have seen the earlier horrific crash tests and thought things must have progressed or they would not have been able to export them, I just had visions of them going all banana shaped etc.

One of mine was officially known as The Banana. The first and second generation XLWB's all bent in the middle. Mind you, had we had taken notice of the maximum load warnings in the handbook, then it may have stayed straight. We did load it up with a 200kW motor once thinking it would be OK, but we forgot to detach the brake disc and bearing unit attached to the shaft first - nearly doubling the weight. Bust a leaf spring, but it did the job! I don't think the current generation of pick-ups have the XLWB anymore

 

 

Going back to roads, here are 4 different photos of the same stretch of road over 4 consecutive years. Pace of improvement is incredible.

 

2001: 4x4 recommended, but all cars used it

2002: Sandy mud road, but wider and more substantial

2003: Cobble-stone road like (Antwerp City Centre!)

late 2003: Rivals anything we have here.

In 2002, the 146 km journey took at least 12 hours, by late December 2003, it took just under 3 hours.

[Lukas]

The Great Wall-cars are for sale in southern countrys in Europe like Italy or Croatia too. They are not that cheap so they are rare to see on the roads. Like the indian cars we get. A friend of mine is importing indian cars to Austria from Italy where they are officially available, but that would be too off topic now.