| Among car enthusiasts are those to whom | | | | of inkstick, from its black residue. This black ink |
| so-called vintage cars are a mechanical and | | | | dried to a slick sheen, and was of a much better |
| historical work of art, yet these vehicles are no | | | | quality than that made from charcoal. He named |
| more than one hundred years old. Compared with | | | | his new product Yanchuan Stone Liquid, and |
| the truly ancient horse-drawn conveyance, they | | | | renamed "fat water," calling it instead "stone oil," |
| are "modern". | | | | which is to this day the literal meaning of the |
| Two-thousand-year-old horse-drawn carriages are | | | | Chinese for petroleum. |
| not, however, the oldest Chinese vehicles. In | | | | His position as government official prevented |
| Henan's Anyang ruins, archaeologists have | | | | Shen Kuo from devoting himself entirely to |
| painstakingly unearthed carriages from 3,000 | | | | science. He was nonetheless sure that "stone oil" |
| years ago, but even these are not believed to be | | | | would in future be of inestimable value and have |
| China's earliest. It must therefore have taken the | | | | comprehensive applications. He predicted: "As |
| Chinese almost four millennia to go from the cart | | | | from my own invention, this matter (stone oil) will |
| age to the automobile era. | | | | have myriad uses." |
| Vehicles used in ancient China were mainly | | | | Unfortunately, the true value of this blessing from |
| horse-drawn carriages, ox carts, and | | | | nature was not, as Shen Kuo predicted, realized |
| wheelbarrows. The horse-drawn carriage was a | | | | until 880 years later. The birth of the national auto |
| mode of transport for the nobility. Prior to the | | | | industry in 1956 brought the matter of oil to public |
| Han Dynasty (206 BC-220), carriages were an | | | | attention, but it was not widely used until the |
| important item of battle materiel in which warriors | | | | appearance of family cars in recent years. |
| stood to fight the surrounding enemy. Ox carts | | | | The earliest motor car in China can be traced |
| were for freight transport, and the common | | | | back to 1902. The first car owner was Empress |
| people used wheelbarrows both as passenger | | | | Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty. On her |
| transport and for carrying goods. | | | | birthday that year, Minister Yuan Shikai sent her a |
| Early animal-drawn carts had standing room only. | | | | foreign-made car as a gift. The car, with its |
| Wooden boards on all four sides protected | | | | wooden body and wheels, resembled a |
| passenger safety and also provided a surface | | | | four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, with the |
| against which to lean. There was usually a canopy | | | | driver's seat at the front and two passenger |
| on top for decoration and shelter from bad | | | | seats behind. |
| weather. The higher the canopy, the more | | | | Although the empress dowager liked the car very |
| beautiful the cart was considered to be. Carts for | | | | much, she never drove it, and neither is it certain |
| carrying warriors or criminals had no canopy. | | | | that she actually rode in it. The story goes that |
| Carts with seats came later. There were generally | | | | she had problems with the driver's dominant |
| three, the one to the left for VIPs, the middle | | | | position in the car, and was unhappy at his being |
| one for the driver, and the one on the right for | | | | seated in front of her. She was less happy still |
| his attendant. This arrangement accorded with the | | | | that the driver sat, rather than kneeled, when |
| ancient convention of the left position being most | | | | driving. On the driver arguing with the empress |
| honored. | | | | dowager that he could not drive in any position |
| By the Han Dynasty a greater variety of | | | | other than sitting, in order to avoid further trouble |
| carriages had developed. Those for use by the | | | | hovering ministers stepped forward and anxiously |
| nobility were sumptuously decorated and | | | | urged Cixi not to ride in the vehicle. There are |
| comfortable, to the extent of being able to recline | | | | several versions as to what happened later, but |
| while travelling. The ox cart was used for | | | | one thing is certain -- the car has never been |
| passenger transport as well as for carrying goods. | | | | used since. It was first placed in the Forbidden |
| As an ox had the strength to draw a large cart | | | | City and later moved to the Summer Palace. |
| steadily, with no jerks, passengers would often | | | | Horse-drawn carriages depicted in a Han Dynasty |
| put a table inside and enjoy a mobile drinking | | | | tomb chamber mural. |
| party. It is recorded that certain ancients put their | | | | In the decades following, only a handful of private |
| conveyances to more practical use by placing | | | | cars appeared in the capital's households. It was |
| stone mills inside their carts, which rotated as the | | | | not until the 1990s that the number of family cars |
| carts moved. | | | | began to increase at such an astonishing speed. |
| The ancient Chinese also developed special | | | | Today, if all Beijing residents in possession of a |
| mechanized cart functions. Compass cart (upper): | | | | driver's license were to drive a car, the number |
| The wooden figure in the cart always faces | | | | of cars on the streets would soar from 2 million |
| south. Mileage cart | | | | to 3.5 million. |
| Nature has been generous to the Chinese, sending | | | | Cars are nowadays a popular topic of |
| them both subterranean and surface oil. As early | | | | conversation among Chinese people, style, price, |
| as 1,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors used | | | | and special features being the aspects most |
| surface petroleum as fuel, calling it "fat water." It | | | | discussed. Auto web sites and exhibitions have |
| was regarded as a utility similar to coal and | | | | become commonplace over the past year, and |
| firewood. | | | | new models emerge at a rate of knots. It is said |
| On being burned this "fat water" produced black | | | | that these days, Guangzhou has more car dealers |
| smoke, a phenomenon particularly noticed by an | | | | than rice shops. This is not to suggest that rice is |
| ancient scientist named Shen Kuo (1031-1095). He | | | | a purchase less popular than cars in the city. |
| developed China's first oil product -- a new type | | | | |