Hungchun: a bride stands next to the MG which is parked under the washing

David, Denise and Ian are on the road and on their way to the MG factory at Nanhui. They appeared to have had NO trouble with any of the processes once they met the key MG distributor in Tianjin. Dave’s email below explains what happened after they met this influential person:

We were driven to the Port by Mr MG Tianjin himself in a MG7. He doesn’t speak any English but our interpreter is brilliant so we are able to communicate easily.  He was a VW agent until 2007 when he took on the MG franchise.  Initially they only sold 4 cars a month but now he is the biggest sales outlet in China at around 40 cars a month.  He says that they are still hard to sell as the MG brand is still unknown.  Most of the taxi drivers have not heard of MG either! He sells the MG3, MG3 wagon, the MG6 and MG7 and soon will have the MG Zero for sale. No details of the Zero yet, but similar to the MG3…
 
Anyway, our cars were ready for us to pick-up so we were there for 15 minutes taking photos then headed 1 hour back to the Vehicle Bureau – Mr MG leading proudly in the MG7. They told us to come back first thing in the morning for the Road Worthy inspection as they were about to close, but a quiet word from Mr MG had them rushing us through and waving us on our way. 

To think we took five days, counting the down time over the weekend, to complete the same process but isn’t it great, Dave’s dream is becoming a reality!

The Victorian MGB GT team had a great day. An eight minute cable car ride and a vigorous, three hour climb, for some of us, up thousands of steps at Yellow Mountain and then a 50km drive (yes a SHORT drive!) to Hungchun.  We are staying in a typical Chinese village. The washing hangs from poles, the alleyways are narrow and the irrigation and waterways are something from another period. The food is really authentic, it’s not five star but it is what we came to see and participate in. There are kids, young people and dogs about the place just getting on with life. It looks like, feels like and smells like something you have all seen in those old Chinese picture postcards.  Fantastic.