NE China's Heihe witnesses booming cold-area car testing business

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 31, 2024 shows a car undergoing cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo by Gu Jingkun/Xinhua)

HEIHE, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Before a new car product goes on sale, it has to undergo cold-weather testing. Heihe, a city in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang, has various favorable conditions for cold-area car testing, including diverse landforms and cold, dry weather in the winter. Its high-quality services have drawn more and more carmakers to test new products in the city in recent years. On Jan. 9, the city entered a 120-day annual car testing season.

Early in 1989, the Jiefang truck division of China FAW Group Co., Ltd. launched its first car test in Heihe. Over the past 30-plus years, the city has seen a rapid increase in types of testing, testing range, and numbers of car testing companies and personnel.

In recent years, Heihe has improved its infrastructure and services to boost its car-testing industry. Statistics show that the city's cold-area car testing business volume accounts for more than 80 percent of China's total. It also has been constantly pushing the comprehensive development of various industries such as car testing, motor racing, automobile trade, and cultural and sports tourism, to further promote the transformation and upgrading of its cold-area car testing industry, injecting vitality into the local economic development.

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 31, 2024 shows a car undergoing cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Photo by Gu Jingkun/Xinhua)

A car undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A car undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 31, 2024 shows a car undergoing cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A car undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A vehicle undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A car undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

A car undergoes cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

Engineer Yao Dong (L) checks the condition of a car after cold-area car testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 31, 2024. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 31, 2024 shows a car undergoing cold-area testing at the Xiaowusili car testing base in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)