WHY CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING PREFERS HIS HONGQI CAR TO HELICOPTER? ALL THE SECRETS ABOUT THIS WONDER CAR!

On Tuesday, an Air China cargo flight landed at the Chennai airport carrying four cars of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Clearly, he has opted to travel to Mamallapuram by road instead of helicopter. But, why?

The luxury car model used by Jinping is called 'Hongqi' which means 'red flag' in Chinese. Leaders of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) have been using 'Hongqi' from the time of its founder Mao Zedong.

The car, which is the most expensive one in China, is 18-feet long, 6.5 feet wide, five-feet tall and weighs 3152kgs. It can zip from 0 to 800 kilometres in 8 seconds.

Foreign ministry officials in Beijing said that Chinese leaders, almost as a rule, don't use helicopters. "Chinese leaders travel by planes and cars and don't use helicopters," NDTV reported.