This year is 115 years since cars were introduced into China. As a researcher of "The Origin of China Automobile History", Jiang Haicheng has been very busy recently: he will give a speech at a theme forum to commemorate the 115th anniversary of the introduction of automobiles into China. This speech mainly focuses on "Is the Empress Dowager Cixi the first car introduced to China?" It seems to be a simple topic, but it embodies Jiang Haicheng’s efforts for more than ten years.
Jiang Haicheng, who has retired for many years, has not lived a long life. He is still busy with his favorite things. Jiang Haicheng first worked in the Beijing Planetarium. After work, his biggest hobby is studying cars. At that time, the information was underdeveloped and there were few cars. Going to the exhibition hall to see cars became his greatest pleasure. In the 1990s, more and more cars began to appear in Beijing, and Jiang Haicheng became more and more fond of cars. He resolutely left the Beijing Planetarium, where he had worked for most of his life, and became an automobile media reporter.
As the first batch of automobile media people in Beijing, Jiang Haicheng witnessed the vigorous development of China automobile industry from scratch in the new era. Nevertheless, he is most concerned about the history of automobiles, especially the initial period of automobile development in China.
In 2001, he published an article in China Auto News: The "Mystery" Left by Cixi’s Imperial Cars. At that time, the cars that Empress Dowager Cixi took were exhibited in the Summer Palace. About this car, some people say that it was presented to Empress Dowager Cixi by Yuan Shikai as a birthday present in 1897. This car is the second generation product of Mercedes-Benz. Many people naturally think that Empress Dowager Cixi was the first person to own a private car.
However, in this "classic car", Jiang Haicheng did not see the logo of Mercedes-Benz, but saw a logo printed with "DURYEA" on an iron pedal. What brand is this car? When was it produced? When was it introduced into China? Jiang Haicheng raised many questions about this car.
He began to look for answers one by one. To this end, he found the source of the statement that "the vehicle is a Mercedes-Benz second-generation car": Wang Huapeng, editor of "The Encyclopedia of China: History of Chinese Cars". Wang Huapeng, a former director of the Automobile Research Office of the Academy of Communications, told Jiang Haicheng that he made that statement out of speculation after inspecting the car in 1979. Moreover, Wang Huapeng later went to Germany to visit the Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Museum, and found no cars with similar styles and models as Cixi’s royal cars. At this time, Jiang Haicheng basically came to a conclusion that the classic car of Empress Dowager Cixi was not a Mercedes-Benz car, but a Tulia car.
However, in a few years, it became popular that the royal car of Empress Dowager Cixi was a Mercedes-Benz brand, and it was also said that this car was customized by Yuan Shikai through the German Embassy.
Jiang Haicheng once again began his "rebuttal" journey. In 2005, Jiang Haicheng learned that the Ford Museum in the United States had materials of Tulia cars, and he contacted the representative of Ford Motor Company in China, hoping to find relevant materials of Cixi’s royal cars. Before long, Jiang Haicheng received a reply: In 1896, Tulia Company assembled 13 cars with the same design as Empress Dowager Cixi’s royal car, which was the third generation car of Tulia. The car used by Empress Dowager Cixi was the only survivor among the 13 cars.
Jiang Haicheng was delighted with it, and the good news kept coming. In 2013, Mercedes-Benz held a commemorative event in Beijing to commemorate the centenary of Mercedes-Benz’s visit to China. This activity originated from a historical fact: in 1913, German businessman Franz Oster brought the first Mercedes 10/25 RS station wagon to China for the first time. This also indirectly proves once again that the royal car of Empress Dowager Cixi is not a Mercedes-Benz brand. Jiang Haicheng added that in 1897, Mercedes-Benz customized a car for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. On that car, the words Mercedes-Benz brand and Victoria were marked, while Cixi’s royal car did not have similar words.
Based on these data, Jiang Haicheng believes that Cixi’s royal car has reached a conclusion for the Tulia brand. With the determination of the brand, the time when Cixi came to the Summer Palace by car also came to a conclusion: the car arrived in the Summer Palace in 1902, not in 1897. In 1897, faced with the threat of reform forces, Empress Dowager Cixi had no intention of holding a birthday celebration. Moreover, in the trade environment at that time, cars produced in the United States in 1896 would not have spread to China so quickly. According to historical records, in 1902 after the Gengzi Incident, Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt the Summer Palace and held her 68th birthday in the Summer Palace. At this time, Yuan Shikai had a chance to get on the bus. However, by 1902, this car of Empress Dowager Cixi was not the first car introduced to China. In December 1901, LINZ, a Hungarian businessman, transported two American-made "Osmo Bill" cars to the Shanghai Public Concession. On January 30, 1902, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce granted him a "temporary license" to drive on the streets, which was the first time that a car appeared in China.
The debate that lasted for more than ten years finally came to the bottom. In his latest speech, Jiang Haicheng systematically demonstrated from eight aspects that the imperial car of Empress Dowager Cixi was not "the first car introduced into China". Looking back on these years’ efforts, Jiang Haicheng sighed and said softly and firmly, "I finally handed in a valid answer sheet when the car was introduced to China for 115 years."
Jiang Haicheng told reporters that during the research, he wrote to Mr. Dan Jixiang, president of the Palace Museum, and Mr. Li Guorong, deputy director of the First Historical Archives of China, hoping that they could help him find the old photos of Empress Dowager Cixi and the car. The two gentlemen tried their best to find no relevant pictures, and they specially wrote back to Jiang Haicheng to express their apologies, which made Jiang Haicheng feel extremely warm. Jiang Haicheng also hopes to seek relevant pictures from readers through Beijing Evening News to enrich the research results. Jiang baojun
