China's first ever Imported Auto Expo (IAE) opened on Wednesday in Beijing.

The five-day event, held at the Beijing Exhibition Center, is the only large-scale professional expo for imported cars in the country.

IAE, which will be held bi-annually, is organized by the China-Europe Association for Technical and Economic Cooperation, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products and China Automobile Dealers Association.

The world's leading car manufacturers are taking part in the event, including Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes and BMW.

Two well-known Chinese actors also turned up for the new car releases: Jiang Wen for Hyundai Rohens, and Liu Ye for KIA Sorento.

Land Rover brought all their imported models, including the latest Range Rover and LR3, with one of them incidentally rolling over on flat ground during the road show.

The 200,000 sq m expo features a new range of cars yet to be released to the market.

IAE also published a report of multinational car manufacturers' social responsibility in China and held a summit on car importing enterprises strategic development on the exhibition's opening day, according to Sohu.com.

The expo closes on August 2.

(Chinadaily.com.cn July 31, 2009)