Across China: Chilly northern city emerges as vehicle-testing hub

HARBIN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Every winter, the streets of Heihe, a border city in China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province, come alive with vehicles bearing distinctive zebra-like stripes, as they are put through their paces on snow and ice.

The test tracks, often situated on the frozen surface of the Heilongjiang River, resemble scenes from an action movie. Car wheels screech on the ice and snow as engineers p