There are countless villages in Guangzhou, but if you go to Chen Tian yourself, you will find it is definitely the dirtiest place in Guangzhou. However, chaos breeds legends, and legends nourish feelings. It is such a place that, with the help of the Internet, has gradually become a holy land in the eyes of car fans. That was not the case. Recently, Chen Tian was demolished, and some KOL who focus on sentimental people took the opportunity to fan the flames. Few people have really been to Chen Tian. Under the guidance of such comments, many people have a sigh that this place that is about to be erased is like a hero dying.
So is this magical village in the city really as interesting as the legend? Last week, at the last minute before the demolition in Chen Tian, we walked around here and felt the so-called "auto parts paradise" on the spot.
Let's talk about how Chen Tian is famous. In fact, from the perspective of domestic auto parts industry, the history of this place is really long. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the spring breeze of reform and opening up just passed through the Pearl River Delta, some businessmen with keen sense of smell transported foreign accident cars or scrapped cars to Guangzhou in the form of cutting cars, and then assembled and sold them. Yes, of course you guessed. Those used cars are based in Chen Tian Village.
From the very beginning, Chen Tian established the set of "omnipotent" and "do whatever you want". To be honest, however, Chen Tian has only really become famous on the Internet in recent years. In 20 14, the World Drift Series China was held in Guangzhou, and the famous American driver Ross Petty accidentally damaged the steering knuckle arm and headlights of his own Silvia S 15 car. There is no S 15 in China, so it is absolutely impossible to buy parts from official channels. It's too late to order parts from America because of the competition. After many inquiries, Ross Petty learned about Chen Tian, so he decided to take a chance. Ross's friend Larry Chen was the editor of SpeedHunters, a world-famous automobile culture website, and he accompanied Ross to Chen Tian to find parts. Afterwards, he wrote a travel note and posted it on SH website. Chen Tian's name has since entered the world stage.
Another thing that shocked foreigners was that in 20 15, a BMW 320d GT coach navigation car in the hands of AutoBild, a famous German automobile magazine, was inexplicably stolen. The Germans found its whereabouts through the GPS module on the car-the car was tossed for 7 1 day, all the way from Germany to Chen Tian, and then sold to Shaanxi. This disgraceful incident exposed the source of parts sold by Chen Tian businessmen.
The mysterious supply channel has always been a magic weapon for Chen Tian, and it is also one of the main impressions he left to the public. There is a comment that Chen Tian's main source of goods from beginning to end is Jintian, which is said to have been the "upstream" of all domestic auto parts disassembly channels. At the same time, some people say that Chen Tian's accessories are as "unclean" as the 320d GT mentioned above. Even five or six years ago, there were occasional rumors on the Internet about stealing vehicles and selling stolen goods in Chen Tian. One thing that impressed me deeply was that a Guangdong player collected a blue Honda NSX with a good appearance, which is rare in the Pearl River Delta where old and strange cars emerge one after another. A few years ago, the car was suddenly stolen. The owner looked for his car in Chen Tian for many days, but by then it had been cut into parts and pieces.
Everyone knows that the water here is deep. Especially when you are really in Chen Tian, the general atmosphere of the last slum in Cyberpunk's films intensifies this feeling. Most stores in Chen Tian will decorate the front of the counter with the front face of a certain car, and the overlap of the models selected by each store is very low. Just like this, although there are many shops here, and they look very similar, it is said that each one operates within a specific scope to minimize mutual interference. The cluster effect is fully used here.
On the bright side, all kinds of bumpers and hoods, as well as air shock absorbers of BMW and Land Rover, are the most common commodities here. Most of the accessories sold in Chen Tian are in so-called luxury cars. Usually, such as Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi, Curious as Lotus, Ferrari and even Rolls-Royce can be found here. In addition to luxury cars, there are mainly parts of Japanese brands, and there are also some businesses that operate official channels of authentic accessories, but few. If you want to find some cars of your own brand or cheap models of joint venture brands (especially in Europe and America), I'm sorry, I can't find them at all. There are no such things as niche performance cars and cultural cars advocated on the Internet, such as dismantling Honda Red Head, Toyota JZ and Nissan RB.
Apart from disassembling automobile parts, shops in Chen Tian basically don't deal in other types of products, at least they don't involve tooling. No modified parts circulated on the Internet have been found before. The forms of things displayed in the storefronts of each store are similar, and the sightseeing experience is poor. At the same time, I can feel that the business really has something, and I can get a general understanding without walking around here. Matching the mottled and faded old Cantonese plaque is the shopping style here-you mainly ask and talk about what you want, which is very old-fashioned.
The price of accessories is not very transparent. For example, we entered a small shop that specializes in Lexus exterior parts, which contained the front and rear bars and light groups of the latest generation ES. They looked like second-hand parts, but after asking, the proprietress told us that they were all modified parts for Camry. Looking back at the pictures of Camry transplanting the front face of a mine car circulated on the Internet before, I don't know if they were modified with the original disassembled parts or something. Of course, it does not rule out that the proprietress is fooling us, because when we asked the price, we probably saw that this group of people did not really come to buy things, and she has been prevaricating.
Some things are really cheap. Another shop owner who specializES in car lights generously quoted us a price: Audi A3 taillights and lexus es taillights, all of which are several hundred dollars. "They are all original parts, and you can have cheaper ones"-he later added. This is naturally suspicious. After all, the lights of luxury cars are literally thousands of years old, but the truth can't be verified. Besides, some things are outrageous. I remember a few years ago, I asked a friend to ask about the original wheels of the eighth generation Civic Type-R in Chen Tian, and the quotation was more than twice the normal market price.
Personally, I guess that Chen Tian merchants probably don't have rare auto parts, nor should they have a good direct channel. They can rely on their relationship to get parts, but the price has been covered by three layers. Therefore, if you want to come here to find so-called JDM fans, forget it. If you like that thing, please navigate directly to Guangdong International Circuit, which is100km away.
Of course, some things are still quite unreliable. The most typical one is a shop specializing in brakes. There are all kinds of refurbished calipers hanging in the shop, including sheep's head and dog meat. The boss started all kinds of tricks in a few words: this XXX caliper is brand new (in fact, it is obviously refurbished), and that XXX brake (famous brand) is less than half of the market price, and it is also equipped with a bridge code. Someone did come here to buy this kind of brake modification, but personally, I don't think so. I'm a victim myself anyway.
Chen Tian is very big, and it is still very lively. Most of the floating population here, one is the lower-level merchants who come to purchase goods, and the other is the courier brother. It is said that because of Chen Tian, the surrounding supporting logistics has also developed very well. E-commerce may already be the most important sales channel in such a distribution market. There are also some people doing "scalper" business here. They solicit customers at the gate and ride electric cars to quickly find parts for tourists in the village. Those who come here to look for parts and buy them themselves have little or no visual inspection. Retail is obviously not the main business model in Chen Tian. As for tourists, we have never seen anyone except a group of idle people, and businessmen are also very wary of people like us who ask around.
To tell the truth, if you are not a senior professional veteran, I am afraid that you will be cheated when you come here to buy things. This has nothing to do with whether you like cars or not. Disassembling automobile parts is an independent industry. You must know this line to avoid the minefield here. It's also interesting what kind of car the accessories sold in Chen Tian are used in. Today's automobile environment is no longer as brilliant as Chen Tian's. At that time, most private car owners actually had no good reason to buy accessories from here, and it was probably difficult for them to trust here. The relationship between a place like Chen Tian and the downstream auto repair industry and used car industry is a deep-seated topic worth discussing.
News about Chen Tian's demolition began to appear on the Internet last year. As of press time, the demolition work of Chen Tian Village has started. But interestingly, the day we went, there was still a week before the official relocation date. At that time, there were almost no signs of collective relocation here, and shops were chatting and drinking tea, busy with business. Many shopkeepers seem to disapprove of the demolition. Some shopkeepers even told us, "Just move out before July 1".
In the future, Chen Tian businessmen will move to many areas, including Taihe Town, Baiyun District, Guangzhou, and the former large-scale clusters will be dispersed. Business will continue, and it is hard to say whether the legendary story can be staged. After all, people who have played the story of Chen Tian are 10086 times as many as those who have been to Chen Tian. Will it be a problem for keyboard fighters to play somewhere else? Rational view of Chen Tian, in fact, no one denies that this magical village in the city occupies a position in the history of automobile development in China. In those days when accessories were expensive, those who couldn't maintain old cars and foreign cars got the desired results here.
However, people are used to using these sentences to describe Chen Tian, but when you think about it, it is really ridiculous to use these words on Chen Tian's head. How to disassemble the car parts of luxury cars? How many so-called car players come here to solve the problem? What kind of car are they playing? Is repairing a car called playing with a car? Just watching the fun.
Really, business, not culture. Personally, I think this is the best respect for Tian Chen and real fans. I only hope that one day, as the world's largest auto market with a sales volume of 30 million, we don't have to take the auto parts market, which is famous for operating "wild road" auto parts and "foreign garbage" second-hand parts, as a proud part of our auto culture, although this so-called culture has not yet taken shape.