Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 827 I can't keep going.

For a long time, Shenzhen's architecture bore a distinct Hong Kong influence.

Whether it's residential buildings, villas, office buildings, or industrial buildings, they can all be described as "petty".

A low-rise building with small rooms can be transformed into a luxury home by adding a couple more windows and several more toilets.

In particular, the industrial buildings built in the original Shekou Industrial Zone were modeled after those in Hong Kong.

Therefore, when planning the Wanmuchun Industrial Park, Chen Fan, who had already reached the level of a professional architect, personally designed the park's planning map and the construction standards for the main buildings.

For example, the floor height of industrial buildings in Hong Kong is similar to that of ordinary residential buildings, only 2.8 to 3 meters, while the floor height of the factory buildings designed by Chen Fan reaches 5 meters.

Sufficient height is necessary to allow enough space for the heat emitted by the machine to dissipate. Otherwise, if the factory area is small, the machine will turn into a large steamer with a room temperature of around 50 degrees Celsius, enough to steam several buckets of water out of a person.

The dormitories were not the cramped, cramped apartments common in Hong Kong, but rather spacious, bright, and airy designs typical of later generations. Each room was over 20 square meters, with a two-square-meter bathroom and a four-square-meter balcony, furnished with four bunk beds. It was definitely not crowded for eight people.

After all, it's just a dormitory, not a home. In Shanghai and Beijing, it's not uncommon to see families of seven or eight crammed into a room of just over 20 square meters, with all sorts of odds and ends taking up more than half the space. That's what you call cramped.

If the factory buildings and dormitories are like this, the office buildings will naturally be no worse.

Not only is it not bad, but it also offers the highest level of comfort.

The top-floor office building, with an area of ​​1,200 square meters, only has two offices and one meeting room.

Apart from the public spaces such as corridors, stairwells, and elevator lobbies, as well as the meeting room which is only 200 square meters, the rest of the space is occupied by those two offices, each with an area of ​​more than 400 square meters.

It's less of an office and more of a super luxurious suite with three bedrooms and a living room.

Ye Yufeng pushed open the two double mahogany doors, spread his arms, turned around to look at Zhou Yali and Chen Fan, his face full of admiration, "I've never seen such a grand office, not even in the offices of the executives at Morgan Stanley in the United States..."

As he spoke, he turned around again, looked at everything in front of him, and couldn't help but shake his head. "It's too big. Although the decoration is not very luxurious, the materials are top-notch: marble floors, mahogany furniture, handmade carpets, Jingdezhen ceramics, American home appliances..."

The main hall is the office, with three rooms: a reception room, a lounge, and a recreation room.

He then walked to the window, opened it, looked out at the sea not far away, and the mountains of Hong Kong on the other side of the sea. Facing the sea breeze, he opened his arms and took a deep breath. "This is simply my dream office."

Chen Fan walked into the office with his hands behind his back, looked at the Wan Muchun bilingual (Chinese and English) office computer on the desk with its bare desktop, and then looked around before looking at Ye Yufeng in surprise and saying, "Isn't this your office?"

Ye Yufeng's eyes widened in surprise as she said, "Of course the top-floor office belongs to you two bosses. How could I be qualified to use this place?"

The people in front of me—Ye Yufeng, Fang Xiaoying, Liu Yadong, and Ma Liyuan—were all transferred from the United States by Zhou Yali. Naturally, they were very familiar with the company's situation and knew that Wan Muchun and Qianfan were joint ventures owned by the young lady and the young master of the Chen family, each owning half of the business.

The remaining two are Zhou Yali and Chen Fan, who are the parties involved.

There was only Wang Jianguo, but in Ye Yufeng's eyes, he was Chen Fan's confidant, which is why she spoke so frankly. She would never have said that in front of outsiders.

Young Master Chen's shares cannot be disclosed in China for the time being; this was personally instructed by the Master, and she wouldn't make a mistake.

When Wang Jianguo heard Ye Yufeng's words, his eyes widened in surprise.

However, he was unaware that Chen Fan was also half a boss of the head office, and only thought that Ye Yufeng was referring to this industrial park, in which Chen Fan had shares.

That's incredible!

Such a large industrial park, with a total investment of $100 million, even if it's only a 10% stake, it's still $10 million.

Does this mean that Dr. Chen has become a capitalist?

But then I thought, it's not a windy day, and the higher-ups are even encouraging people to contact their relatives overseas.

Even if Dr. Chen is a capitalist, it was given to him by his relatives. Besides, there are bad people among the masses, and there are good people among capitalists. Dr. Chen is a good person.

With this thought, Wang Jianguo instantly calmed down, and as for the fact that Dr. Chen was a capitalist, he pretended not to hear it.

Chen Fan was too lazy to explain to him and said directly to Ye Yufeng, "That's not true. When it was designed, I planned it out. One of the two offices on the top floor was for Ya Li, and the other was for the general manager of the mainland company. Now that you are the general manager, one of them is yours."

He didn't plan to have an office for himself because it was unnecessary. He didn't plan to work here, so what would be the point of having an office? Was he just pretending?

On the contrary, he reserved two apartment suites for himself in the dormitory building so that he could stay when he came to Shenzhen.

It's not about saving money, but there aren't any high-end hotels in Shenzhen right now, and in the summer there aren't even any rooms with air conditioning. Since we have this option now, of course we want to make ourselves as comfortable as possible.

As for Zhou Yali, although she didn't manage much, she held the title of chairman and was the nominal highest manager of the mainland company, so of course she needed to be provided with an office to maintain appearances.

As soon as Chen Fan finished speaking, Zhou Yali nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, didn't I tell you? I remember saying it."

Ye Yufeng rolled her eyes at her. "You did say that, but I have to be willing to use it. What kind of boss doesn't have an office while the employees use a top-of-the-line office?"

Zhou Yali waved her hand, "Hey, whatever I say goes. You can move over without worry. There's really no need to save any for him."

Ye Yufeng looked at her, then at Chen Fan, her eyes filled with excitement, "Really, you don't need to?"

Chen Fan walked to Zhou Yali's side and said with a smile, "I'm just a consultant. Anyone would know there's something wrong with you giving me this kind of office."

Even if I have important business to attend to, I can use Yali's office. As the company's general manager and actual manager, you frequently deal with the industrial park management committee and government leaders, so having a good public image is very important.

Seeing that neither of them seemed to be just being polite, Ye Yufeng's smile was even harder to suppress than an AK. He immediately clapped his hands and grinned, "Then I'll gladly accept your offer!"

As for the other three, they only looked on with envy and had no other thoughts.

Fang Xiaoying is the administrative director, Liu Yadong is the financial director, and Ma Liyuan is the production director. They each have their own teams and management scope, and they need to work with their teams.

Especially for Ma Liyuan, who often needs to work at the factory, it's not appropriate to arrange a large, independent office for them, so they can only look on with envy.

By the way, although Zhou Yali told Chen Fan that she invited the four of them, as a high-level talent, how could she not have a few familiar assistants?
So each of them brought two or three familiar subordinates with them.

They were previously middle managers in the Zhou family's company, and naturally brought along the original company's lower-level managers. If the Zhou family hadn't had a strong talent pool, the company's operations would have been affected.

Therefore, when it comes to mining resources, you can't be too aggressive all at once; you have to take it slowly.

……

After touring the area, the group returned to Zhou Yali's office and sat down.

Fang Xiaoying then used the internal phone on her desk to call a clerk to come up and make tea, and to take meeting minutes.

Ye Yufeng sat on the sofa and reported the results of his work over the past period to Zhou Yali and Chen Fan. "Our park is the first park to be completed in the entire Shekou Development Zone. Apart from us, only a few industrial buildings and dormitory buildings have been completed so far."

However, in order to save money, they adopted a design by a Hong Kong designer. The building is not tall and is relatively small, so it can only be said to be barely usable and is completely incomparable to the buildings in our park.

Therefore, when the park management committee invited clients to visit, they all felt that our company was more capable, and if they were clients, our company would have a natural advantage.

At this point, she turned to look at Chen Fan curiously and asked, "Advisor Chen, did you foresee this?"

Chen Fan shrugged and laughed, "I've never even seen Hong Kong's architecture, how could I have predicted something like this?"

He paused for a moment, then continued, "I'm just speculating based on different application scenarios. Mechanical operation generates heat, so the floors should naturally be designed to be higher to facilitate heat dissipation. The same applies to dormitories and office buildings."

Ye Yufeng raised an eyebrow and smiled, "If that's the case, I think if you go to America, you can start from scratch and at least own your own architectural design firm."

Chen Fan smiled slightly, "Thank you for the compliment."

Fang Xiaoying whispered to the clerk, "Don't write down this part. Don't write down anything related to Consultant Chen."

The clerk nodded to indicate that she understood and quickly crossed out the half-written notes.

Ye Yufeng continued to report on the company's situation, "We started moving into the production line a month ago. Today is January 3, 1980. By the end of this month at the latest, all production lines will be fully installed. After a debugging period of about half a month, they will be officially put into production."

While at work, Zhou Yali also put away her lazy nature and became dignified. After Ye Yufeng finished speaking, she immediately asked, "What about the workers? On the one hand, can the recruitment of workers be completed in time? On the other hand, can the training be completed in time?"

Ye Yufeng immediately said, "Worker recruitment is underway, and this is being handled by the local government according to the initial agreement. I spoke with General Manager Yuan to understand the situation. The current implementing units are the labor bureaus of Shaoguan and Qingyuan, who are recruiting workers locally, primarily female workers."

In addition, Hunan province is also providing assistance, recruiting workers in Shaoyang, Hengyang, and other places.

She looked at Zhou Yali and Chen Fan and explained, "Before this, there were only a few manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, and there was only one joint venture, Luohu Handbag Factory. All the workers were recruited locally."

However, Shenzhen's population is currently limited. Our first batch of workers will need at least 1500 people for various industries, including clothing, shoes and bags, electronics, and electrical appliances. We cannot recruit qualified personnel solely by relying on locals.

Moreover, more than ten companies will likely move in shortly after us. Although their individual workforce needs are not large, they will still add up. Therefore, the best approach is to recruit from other regions. The provincial government's solution is to assign these labor demands to the labor bureaus of several localities, who will then be responsible for fulfilling the tasks.

If all goes well, the first batch of approximately 600 workers should arrive as early as the end of this month, and all 1500 workers should be in place by the tenth day of the first lunar month, after the Spring Festival.

After a two-second pause, she added, "If there is any shortfall, the government will be responsible for making up the difference."

Zhou Yali listened and nodded slightly. After she finished speaking, she immediately added, "Besides employee recruitment, I'm more concerned about their skills training. How is that being addressed?"

Ye Yufeng didn't speak, but looked at Ma Liyuan, the production director.

Ma Liyuan adjusted his glasses and said seriously, "Currently, there is only one secondary vocational training school in Shenzhen, which is a public adult education institution recently established by the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions: 'Shenzhen Workers' School'."

With the witness of relevant personnel from the Shekou Industrial Park Management Committee and the municipal government, we reached a cooperative education agreement with this school.

The school provides the teachers, and we provide the equipment. They train qualified technical operators specifically for us, covering processes such as cutting and sewing of clothing, shoes and bags, as well as operating electronic and electrical production lines.

The training aims to be practical, focusing on hands-on learning, and the duration varies from three months to six months depending on the job.

With the technical guidance provided by the production line manufacturer, it is not a problem to train qualified technical workers in a short period of time.

According to the development plan, assuming market sales meet expectations, all our industrial buildings and dormitories will reach full capacity within six months at the latest, and the entire production process will be fully operational.

After he finished speaking, Chen Fan immediately asked curiously, "Are there vocational schools in Shenzhen now?"

All he knew was that Shenzhen University was approved to be established in May 1983, and then held its opening ceremony on September 27 of that year. More than 200 students enrolled, and the faculty was supported by several top universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Renmin University, and most of them were well-known scholars.

It's like getting into a third-rate school but receiving a top-notch education.

Unexpectedly, Shenzhen already had vocational education schools before Shenzhen University.

It wasn't that Chen Fan looked down on this place; it was mainly because this place used to be on the "front line," and secondary and higher education institutions were generally not located on the "front line." So while districts and counties across the country were vying to establish secondary and higher education institutions, this place only had one "higher education institution."

That is the "Radio and Television University" with branch campuses all over the country.

Moreover, this school was founded in 80, meaning it didn't exist at that time.

As for the "workers' school" that Ma Liyuan mentioned, he had indeed never heard of it.

That's why I asked this question.

Ma Liyuan smiled and said, "This school was also recently established. I heard it was to prepare for the future development of Shenzhen. Before this, there weren't many factories in Shenzhen, so even if it were established, it wouldn't be needed. The factories could train their own people."

Chen Fan nodded in realization and smiled, "It seems there are discerning people in the city too."

The development here is practically an open secret. The issue of establishing a special economic zone has been discussed many times. Last April, the old political commissar clearly stated that an "export special economic zone" should be established. Three months later, in March, the old political commissar publicly changed the "export special economic zone" to an "economic special economic zone".

This name change represents not just a change in one aspect, but a comprehensive reform.

The concept of "taking economic development as the central task" officially began here.

Now we are just waiting for the National Assembly to formally approve the special zone and to clarify the location of its implementation.

But regardless of which cities are included, Shenzhen, which has already obtained the "Shekou Industrial Zone" designation, is a definite winner.

Therefore, it was only natural for the city to arrange for this "workers' school".

After Ma Liyuan finished speaking, he talked about some production and technology-related matters, and then Fang Xiaoying and Liu Yadong also gave their respective reports.

Most of the time they were the ones talking, while Zhou Yali and Chen Fan listened, only asking a question or two when they had doubts.

Finally, Ye Yufeng said, "Everything is progressing steadily now, but whether we follow domestic or international customs, we need to hold an opening ceremony."

She shrugged at Zhou Yali, "That's why I called you over. After all, you're the chairman, and you can't possibly not participate in something like this."

Zhou Yali chuckled awkwardly twice, "Well, here I am."

Ye Yufeng gently rolled his eyes, not wanting to talk to her at all.

Yes, you've come, but you've been in China for over a week before coming here. I wonder what brought you back to China this time?!
If Zhou Yali could hear her thoughts, she would definitely tell her, "Of course it's for fun! Why would it be for work?!"

Unfortunately, she couldn't hear, so she could only ask, "Has the specific date for the celebration been set?"

Ye Yufeng made a gesture, and Fang Xiaoying immediately said, "Everything has been arranged. The celebration venue is downstairs. Guests will be received in the VIP reception rooms on the first and eighth floors. Important guests can be invited to the ninth floor, where you and Consultant Chen will personally receive them."

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan quickly asked, "Is there anything else I need to do?"

Fang Xiaoying looked at Chen Fan with a glint of admiration in her eyes and said with a smile, "Advisor Chen, you may not even know it yourself, but you have a lot of influence in the local area. Whether it's President Yuan, the municipal government, or even the province, they all speak highly of you."

I believe that the reception would be most effective if you personally intervened.

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow and blinked. "Alright then."

Since everyone's already here, let's just go with the flow.

It's just chatting with someone, and then eating and drinking with them. That's something he's good at.

Fang Xiaoying continued, "The celebration is scheduled for 9:9 a.m., which represents the company's longevity. We have invited a lion dance team from Nanhai, Foshan to perform, and Ms. Zhou will dot the eyes of the lions."

After the celebration, a banquet was held in the cafeteria at noon. The chef was a master chef from Xin'an Restaurant, who prepared authentic Cantonese cuisine. After the meal, the celebration officially concluded.

He paused for a moment, then continued, "As for the specific time..."

She spread her hands and smiled helplessly, "Since you haven't come yet, we can't be sure. We're just waiting for you to decide. The earliest we can do it is in three days, but any time is fine."

After 77, everything awoke, and the lion dance troupes of Foshan also resumed their old business, quickly becoming popular throughout Lingnan. Don't think that state-owned enterprises don't use lion dances. When state-owned enterprises use lion dances for events, they are really fierce. They won't accept anyone who isn't a famous performer. There's a trend of competition among them, making them the biggest contributors to the lion dance economy.

In Guangdong, without lion dance, the event is practically nonexistent, and the best lion dance troupes are in Foshan.

Nanhai District in Foshan is the most authentic birthplace of lion dance. Fang Xiaoying knows where to hire a lion dance team. She doesn't know if she heard about it in Chinatown or received guidance from someone here.

But that's not important, as long as there's a lion dance performance.

Zhou Yali turned to look at Chen Fan. Chen Fan raised his hand to check the date on his watch, then raised his right hand and silently calculated with his fingers.

Amidst the strange looks from the crowd, Master Chen calmly opened his eyes and said, "Then it will be three days from now, January 7th, the 20th day of the 11th month of the year of Yiwei. It's an auspicious day for opening a business and making money. It's a genuinely lucky day, and it happens to be a Monday, a workday, so it won't take up my rest time. Perfect."

Zhou Yali naturally had no objections. She turned to Ye Yufeng and asked, "Is it okay?"

Ye Yufeng nodded without hesitation, "The invitations are all ready and can be sent out at any time. The chef and lion dance team have also been booked in advance. We will open next Monday, no problem at all."

Zhou Yali snapped her fingers. "OK, then next Monday."

Ye Yufeng turned to look at Fang Xiaoying, "Thank you for your hard work."

Fang Xiaoying gestured, "Leave it to me, no problem."

That concludes today's meeting.

Ye Yufeng smiled at the two of them and said, "Although you launched a surprise attack, we were prepared. Are you staying in the office lounge or an apartment suite in the dormitory building?"

Seeing Zhou Yali looking at him, Chen Fan smiled and said, "Let's go with the apartment."

He paused for a moment, then said, "Can you get in touch with Mr. Yuan right now? There's something I'd like to talk to him about."

Ye Yufeng replied without hesitation, "Sure, as long as he's not on a business trip, he's usually working at the management committee office. He happens to be here right now, so I'll contact him right away."

Chen Fan nodded and said, "You'll come along later too. If things go smoothly, your workload might be a bit heavier."

Upon hearing this, Ye Yufeng and the others stared wide-eyed.

She looked at Chen Fan and Zhou Yali and said weakly, "You're not going to expand your business scope again, are you?"

Chen Fan coughed lightly and laughed, "Well, this is just a plan for now. We'll talk about the specifics later."

Ye Yufeng groaned, "They really treat us like cattle! I can't take it anymore."

(End of this chapter)