FAW Group's Besturn B70 at an international auto show attracts visitors. Wu Changqing

Of 15 top recipients, the Besturn B70 car by First Automotive Works (FAW) Group was the only design patent to win a gold medal at the 11th China Patent Awards in Beijing on Feburary 8.

China's highest government-sponsored patent award, the event aims to boost the nation's intellectual property strategy and accelerate creation of proprietary intellectual property.

The recent awards were the first after a new national intellectual property strategy was announced in 2008. Participating projects were significantly better than those in the previous sessions, according to organizers.

The car design fused traditional Chinese culture with international design trends, creating an image both fashionable and powerful, industry insiders said.

Its front headlight array "broke the old design model and perfectly complemented the whole", the awards appraisal said.

"Car design has a key position in industrial design," said Zhu Xi, general director of China Industrial Design Association.