1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1903 Sanya Port Experience

In fact, there have been more and more foreigners coming to Sanya for various reasons in recent years, and the earliest Haihan Railway that runs through the Sanya area is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the area, so it will inevitably become this The "Internet celebrity attractions" of the era have attracted people from all over the world to check in.Almost every day, foreigners who have recently arrived in Sanya come to the railway station to buy a platform ticket to visit this giant steel beast running on the rails.There will also be some daring people who simply buy a ticket and experience the taste of taking this kind of transportation for themselves.

Of course, due to confidentiality reasons, not all foreigners are eligible to take the train to Tiandu. Most curious foreigners can only take the section between Shengli Port and Sanya Port.And only with special permission from the executive committee, can you take the train to Tiandu Industrial Zone if you are accompanied by a special person-of course, this is not the treatment that ordinary people can enjoy.

Of course, Li Lu and this group of students can enjoy this kind of treatment, but because the time is not suitable, there is no flight to Tiandu Industrial Zone for the time being, so they can only take a bus to Sanya Port first.Although the journey between these two places is not long, it is enough to experience the car ride, and Sanya Port itself is also a place worth visiting.

Compared with the comfort of ordinary carriages, Li Lu felt that the train seemed to be more stable during its travel, and the speed was indeed significantly faster than that of carriages.Like other foreigners who took this kind of transportation for the first time, the first thing Li Luo thought of was that if this thing was used to carry troops, it would be no problem to march hundreds of miles a day.

However, there is no need to ask Ning Qi whether this idea is feasible, Li Luo quickly figured out one thing, since with Haihan's ability, only two railways have been built in the past ten years, it is obviously because Haihan is currently powerless Promote the railway system on a large scale.In this way, it is difficult for this special mode of transportation to play a role in wartime, unless the battlefield happens to be within the range covered by the railway.

Of course, in the case of the Haihan Army, the efficiency of deploying troops from the sea by shipping may be higher than that of trains, and there is no need to rely on this special means of transportation.

Looking at the rapidly retreating scene outside the window, Li Luo couldn't help asking: "Lord Ning, based on the time calculation, you started to build the railway shortly after you arrived here. It seems that you have planned it a long time ago, so this mode of transportation is here. It should be very common in your home country, right?"

Ning Qi was surprised by Li Luo's sharp thinking: "Shizi, you are the first person to ask me this question. No one has ever thought of this level before. You are right. It is a very common means of transportation, but the mileage is hundreds or thousands of times longer than ours. All major cities in the entire country are connected by railways... But such convenient transportation cannot be realized here for the time being, maybe in a few generations People can do it!"

Most of the foreign dignitaries who took the train for the first time would be amazed at the operation of this means of transportation, and some more ambitious people would inquire about the cost and whether Haihan could sell this technology.But no one has really inquired about the application of this technology in the hometown of Haihan people, because many people probably forget that all kinds of black technologies that Haihan mastered that cannot be explained by common sense are all derived from the one that is said to be thousands of miles away overseas. the homeland.

But Ning Qi is very clear that the level of railway technology that can be replicated across time and space is limited, coupled with the limited scale of railway operation that Shanghai Han's engineering capabilities and national strength can support, this mode of transportation will not be available in the foreseeable period of time. It is difficult to achieve too fast a development speed.The Ministry of Construction even has a plan for the Hainan Island Ring Railway, but the resources required for investment are far from being met by the current national strength, so it can only be sealed up and wait for suitable conditions in the future.

For the agricultural society of this era, the floating population is small, and many people have never left the state or county where they live in their entire lives. Therefore, the special transportation means of trains does not actually have much demand for passenger transportation. Haihan has built The two railways in China are also mainly focused on freight transport.In the future, the construction of railways in Haihan will not deviate from this basic demand. Only areas with fixed bulk cargo transportation needs will have the need to build railway transportation systems.

Of course, in addition to these two large railways, many places have actually built small rail transportation systems according to local conditions. For example, between the mine of the Heitu Port Coal Mine and the port wharf, rail transportation pulled by steam locomotives has been realized.Such a small-scale rail transportation system is actually slowly becoming popular in various large trading ports under the rule of Haihan, but because of its extremely short mileage, the Executive Committee did not include it in the officially operating railways.

The railways from Changhua to Danzhou, and between Danzhou and Haikou are still under discussion, and there is still a long way to go before they are completed and put into use. Therefore, the railways officially in operation are still only Sanya and Changhua.However, for foreigners, the existence of the railway system itself is shocking enough. As for the mileage, it is not a question that most people will care about, let alone someone like Li Wei who likes to get to the bottom of it.

After listening to Ning Qi's answer, Li Lu had no expression on his face, but he was really shocked in his heart.According to Ning Qi, the homeland of the Haihan people is a thousand times stronger than the current Haihan country. Is there really such a powerful country in the world?Then if such a country has the ambition to conquer the world and unify the world, wouldn't the country pointed at by its soldiers be like ants.

Thinking of this episode, Li Luo couldn't help but feel a slight chill on his back. With North Korea's national strength, he might not even have a chance to resist in such a situation.But thinking that the country should be extremely far away, he calmed down a little at the moment.Regarding this question, he didn't want to ask Ning Qi for the answer. If Ning Qi said that he was right, he might call him one day. Then wouldn't he have to live under the shadow of war from now on.

"My son, from your left, you can see the Shengli Port Shipyard."

Ning Qi's reminder brought Li Wei back from his contemplation. He turned his head and looked out the car window. He could vaguely see several large ships under construction on the coast not far away. class battleship.

Li Lu almost blurted out that he wanted to stop to have a look, but he immediately realized that Ning Qi had said earlier that this train can only stop when it arrives at the station, and it will not stop on the way.Moreover, whether or not the shipyard can be visited is definitely not up to him.

As if he had read through Li Lu's thoughts, Ning Qi added: "If we have time in the afternoon, we can go to the shipyard together."

"Then Master Lao Ning will arrange it." Naturally, Li Luo would not take the initiative to refuse such an arrangement, so he quickly thanked Ning Qi.

Not long after, the train arrived at the Sanya Port Railway Station at the northern end of the Luhuitou Peninsula. After Li Wei got off the train with Ning Qi, he saw Zhou Hengxing, another high-ranking Haihan official who was already waiting on the platform.

Zhou Hengxing himself is from Danzhou, Hainan Island, and he is considered a genuine local official. However, after crossing over, he went to Heitu Port to work as a civil affairs officer for a period of time, and was later transferred back to the mainland to serve as the director of the Sanya Port Management Committee.And this position has not been changed since he took it, and he has no plans to move.After all, he has been working abroad for a while, and he knows that Sanya is the place with the most comfortable living conditions in this time and space. He personally doesn't have much political ambitions, and An Anxin is already a very powerful official here. Not bad.

Yesterday, Zhou Hengxing was not present at the reception banquet for Li Luo and his party because of other things, so today was the first time he met Li Luo, but he knew why Ning Qi arranged for him to accompany Li Luo to visit Sanya Port. After all, this is not the first time he has received such a political task. The task he is in charge of is to let Li Wei fully feel the commercial atmosphere and operation level of Sanya Port, so as to have a deeper understanding of the local trade environment.

"Since my son is here to visit Sanya Port, I suggest taking a boat tour first to get a full view of the port area." Zhou Hengxing and Li Wei took the initiative to mention today's arrangement after greeting: "Sanya Port area is relatively large, and it is estimated to go around It's just time for lunch when I come down. Let me tell you first, I have already booked a place, don't leave at noon, let me do something!"

The tour route arranged by Zhou Hengxing is to board the ship at Sanya Port, then go northward along the Linchun River, turn to the Sanya River at the upstream junction, and then go southward and return to Sanya Port.Walking around like this, you can almost have a general impression of the Sanya Port Area.

"Limited by the local geographical conditions, the harbor of Sanya Port is much smaller than that of Shengli Port. I believe Shizi has noticed this. In order to make full use of the space here, we have also planned a large number of wharves along the two rivers. Both sides of the Spring River are basically docks built by foreign businessmen themselves, there are hundreds of them, large and small."

After boarding the ship, Zhou Hengxing enthusiastically introduced the situation of Sanya Port to Li Mo and his party.In fact, about the situation here, Li Wei had read some written materials before, and heard some from Li Xi, so he understood a little bit.He knew that this place was developed later than Shengli Port, but unlike Shengli Port, which partially assumed the mission of the official port, Sanya Port has a stronger commercial atmosphere, except that the port area near the mouth of the sea was built by the government. The many piers and various facilities along the two inland rivers are almost all private properties, and even most of them are controlled by foreign businessmen.

With the deliberate support of Haihan, a large number of businessmen invested resources in this area, enclosing land and building a port. It only took a few years to build this area into a new trade area in Sanya.

The width of the Linchun River is only a few tens of feet, and Li Mo can clearly see stretches of warehouses and commercial warehouses on both sides of the river from the boat, and these buildings often have very conspicuous huge signboards on the tops, even in a You can see it from outside.

"These big signs are mainly for the convenience of merchants entering the port to see their destinations, because there are too many piers here, and some measures must be taken to gain a sense of presence." Zhou Hengxing explained the existence of these signs to Li Wei. reason.

Li Luo asked: "I heard that there are strong winds in spring and summer in the local area. Isn't it easy for these signboards to be blown over during the windy season?"

Zhou Hengxing nodded and admitted Li Luo's guess: "It is indeed the case that the prince said, but for businessmen, it is nothing more than spending money to re-establish a signboard. In our place, as long as spending money can solve the problem Things are not big things. Businessmen who have the money to make such a big sign don't mind spending a little more money on maintenance and repairs."

After hearing this, Li Mo felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't say it. It took a while to realize that it was because his understanding of money was different from that of Haihan people.However, there is nothing to argue about this kind of disagreement. This is the territory of the Haihan people, so everything is naturally operating according to the rules of the Haihan people.

Li Lu recalled yesterday evening when he was on the carriage to Fort Victory, he also seemed to see many conspicuous signboards hanging on the shops on both sides of the road, which was dizzying. This might be one of Haihan's business models.

However, the further upstream along the Linchun River, the fewer these signboards, and the density of the docks on the shore is obviously lower than that of the downstream.Zhou Hengxing made no secret of this: "The terrain in the downstream is better, so there are more merchants gathering together. But the development space in the upstream is actually larger, and the related costs will be lower. Gradually, merchants will come here to settle down. .”

At the confluence of the two rivers in the upper reaches, there are only sporadic piers in the inland direction on the east bank of the Linchun River, replaced by large fields in the distance.In the upper reaches of the Linchun River is a large amount of agricultural land, in addition to state-owned collective farms, there are also a large number of private plantations.Almost all those who set up plantations here are the first batch of merchants who invested in agriculture in Sanya. Now the plantations here have entered the harvest and return period, and most of the upstream piers are subsidiary industries of the plantations.

The boat turned into the Sanya River from the confluence of the two rivers and went down the river. Li Mo and his party once again witnessed the change from the sporadic docks to the bustling port area.The lower reaches of the Sanya River are wider than the Linchun River, so the ships docked here are obviously larger than the Linchun River. Li Wei saw that several ships were even larger than the Haihan Navy's expedition-class warships. bigger.

It is also because the inland wharf of the Sanya River mainly docks for large ships, the number of private wharves here is less than that of the Linchun River, only about two-thirds, but the degree of prosperity is almost the same.

When driving back to the official port area of ​​Sanya Port, Li Wei saw conspicuous coastal defense forts on the river bank of Luhuitou Peninsula.However, what is more eye-catching than the fort is the two-story-high sign boards above it. The four characters of "Haihan Bank" can be seen directly. It is difficult for people entering and leaving Sanya Port to ignore this huge advertisement.

(End of this chapter)