An old photo shows that a crowd of onlookers gathering around China’s first tractor “Oriental Red” (or “Dongfanghong”). [Photo/WeChat account:sinomach-v] 

YTO Group Corporation, a subsidiary of China Machinery Industry Co (Sinomach), was previously known as the “First Tractor Manufacturing Factory”. It was in this factory that China’s first tractor “Oriental Red” (or “Dongfanghong”) was produced.

July 20 1958, witnessed the historic moment when the first “Oriental Red” tractor drove out of the factory in Luoyang city, Henan province. The audience burst with excitement, celebrating the fact that China is finally making tractors on its own.

The “Oriental Red” tractors were the crystallization of Chinese people’s arduous work. Workers of the First Tractor Manufacturing Factory dedicated day and night to develop the tractors.

At that time, the newly-developed “Oriental Red” tractors were widely applied in agriculture. They took over 60 percent of land ploughing work and were thus considered a symbol of agricultural mechanization in Chinese farmers’ eyes.

More than 60 years has passed since the birth of the first “Oriental Red” tractor. China has grown into the second biggest economy in the world and the biggest country manufacturing and using agricultural machinery.

While the “Oriental Red” tractors will remain a strong support for farming in China, YTO Group Corporation will continue to lead the technical development of agricultural mechanization as well as push forward the upgrading and transformation of agricultural machinery industry.