Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1239 Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes

Watching Li Yanhong enter the Yuhe Leisure Resort, the taxi driver couldn't help but feel envious.

According to the boast he made to Li Yanhong today, as long as he enters the Yuhe Resort Area and is received by Li Dongling, he will have the opportunity to become a billionaire.

The taxi driver wondered if the next time he saw news about Li Yanhong, the man would already be a billionaire.

However, when that day comes, the taxi driver will have something to brag about. He can boast to the passengers that Li Yanhong became a billionaire by riding in his car!

Anyway, he can talk whatever he wants, and maybe he can even make his taxi more popular!
Countless people will use all sorts of means to get rich. There are even people who believe in feng shui who might book his taxi at a high price or even hire him as their driver. This world has always been crazy, and there is absolutely no logic to it.

Upon entering the Yuhe Leisure Resort, even though it wasn't a day off, Li Yanhong still saw a large flow of people in the resort.

Now, Yuhe Leisure Resort Area has become a calling card for Pingyang and even Hanxi, where you can eat, drink, play, stay and shop all in one place.

When it first opened, the prices here were not low, but wages have been rising in recent years while prices at Yuhe Resort have not increased, making the prices at Yuhe Leisure Resort seem not so high anymore.

As the car drove toward the Yuhe Resort Hotel, Li Yanhong was surprised to see that there were even specialty stores for Bandai and Pop Mart blind boxes in the resort, with posters of Pokémon, Kung Fu Panda, and Labubu displayed at the entrance.

As a long-established giant in the figure industry, Bandai has seen its revenue reach new historical highs in recent years, and has also accelerated its overseas expansion.

In America, Li Yanhong also saw many Bandai stores, where Dragon Ball, Gundam and other figures were selling like hotcakes. In America, Bandai was also good at ripping people off.

As for Pokémon, after its launch by Bandai, it swept the globe. The anime was introduced to American television and broadcast, and Pokémon figures and merchandise sold very well in America and North America!
The fact that New York is even planning to build America's first Pokémon Center shows just how popular it is in America.

When Pop Mart's blind boxes met the phenomenal Pokémon trend, the sparks that flew were so intense that it was easy to make a killing.

Since launching Pokémon and Pop Mart, Bandai's revenue has been growing at a rate of over 40% every quarter, sometimes even exceeding 80%, almost crushing its competitors.

As for Kung Fu Panda, it was co-produced by Oriental Media, Ping Duong TV, Ping Duong Zoo, and Bandai Namco. It was first broadcast by Ping Duong TV and has now been sold to many TV stations in mainland China, as well as overseas.

Kung Fu Panda is a calling card created for Pingyang Zoo. Its popularity is far less than that of Pokémon, but it already has some recognition in inland areas. However, it still needs continuous promotion and publicity.

Pop Mart is currently mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and other places. In the United States and other places, it is mainly played by Chinese people and has not yet expanded its circle. Therefore, Li Yanhong is not very familiar with Pop Mart.

However, Li Yanhong only learned today that Bandai was also a business owned by Li Dashan, which gave him a clearer understanding of Li Dashan's strength.

Wang Hanning took Li Yanhong to a star-rated hotel in the Yuhe Leisure Resort Area, where someone was already waiting.

"Mr. Li Yanhong, is this Mr. Li? Mr. Li is currently discussing something and will need you to wait a moment!"

Du Qishan, Li Dongling's chief assistant, led Li Yanhong to the hotel's semi-open terrace and spoke to him.

Upon arriving at the hotel terrace, which had been cleared out for the day, Li Yanhong found security personnel guarding the entrance. After passing through security, he entered the terrace and saw several people sitting there talking.

Before I even got there, I heard some arguing. Although I couldn't make out the specifics, the argument was clearly quite heated.

Upon seeing Li Yanhong arrive, Li Dongling raised his wine cup to welcome him, indicating that he would meet with Li Yanhong after finishing his current tasks.

Li Yanhong hurriedly stood up, nodded to Li Dongling, and then sat down. Li Yanhong saw the people sitting with Li Dongling. He didn't know their identities, but they all seemed to be people of high status.

Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, Zhang Ao, Gao Peng, and others also glanced at Li Yanhong. Their attitudes toward Li Yanhong varied, but they were all generally friendly.

Although the taxi driver today is highly suspected of exaggerating, looking at all those people who have been received and valued by Mr. Li over the years, from Li Yan of Focus Media to Du Guoying of BackJoy, as well as Guangwei, Huaqi, Jiangmin, etc., which one of them hasn't become a local tycoon?
These companies are all powerful figures or even industry leaders in their respective fields, and even Ren Yuefeng and others cannot underestimate them.

Who dares to say that Li Yanhong won't become the next warlord of the Eastern University of Science and Technology?
Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, and Zhang Ao are all senior executives at the headquarters of Dongling High-Tech, and they can be said to hold high positions and wield great power.

However, Ren Yuefeng and his team sometimes need the support of various branches of Dongling High-Tech, especially Dongling High-Tech Port City Company, North American Group, and Old Europe Group, as well as various local powers.

The relationship between headquarters and branch offices can sometimes be quite delicate. While branch offices are obligated to carry out orders from headquarters, sometimes, due to conflicting interests, the two sides may find themselves in a covert struggle.

In this world, there is no such thing as a puppet that is completely obedient, especially when there is a conflict of interest. It is simply unrealistic to expect everyone to willingly sacrifice their own flesh.

The relationship between Ren Yuefeng and other senior executives at headquarters and powerful figures in various branches of Dongling High-Tech, as well as the heads of Focus Media, Huaqi, Torch Group, and Founder Computer, is somewhat delicate. To put it bluntly, Focus Media and Founder Computer need the support of headquarters; similarly, when Ren Yuefeng and his team issue orders to Dongling High-Tech headquarters, their execution still requires the work of their subordinates. Both sides have times when they need each other's assistance.

However, winning over Li Yanhong is a matter for the future. They also need to see Li Dongling's attitude towards Li Yanhong and whether he will be entrusted with important responsibilities. Right now, Ren Yuefeng and other senior executives of Dongling High-Tech have important matters to attend to.

"Now we just need to see where Dongling High-Tech's automobile production base, automobile yard, and testing center will ultimately be located!"

Ren Yuefeng said that the reason everyone is gathered here today is to discuss where to put this gold-devouring beast.

The attitudes of Dongling Hi-Tech executives toward this matter varied, or rather, there were differences in their approaches to public relations with these powerful figures at Dongling Hi-Tech.

Take Gao Peng, a staunch local from Pingyang, for example. His family, the Gao family, can be said to be a representative Pomenluo family in Pingyang. Some members of the Gao family are officials, some are lawyers, and Gao Peng, as a veteran of Dongling High-Tech, serves as the logistics manager of Dongling High-Tech.

The Gao family is destined to be tied to Pingyang, so naturally they would prefer to locate the Dongling High-Tech Automobile Production Base in Pingyang.

However, Zhang Ao, the general manager of the marketing department, is different. He actually prefers to locate the automobile production base in Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Beijing.

There's no other reason than that Dongling Hi-Tech's products are sold in the inland markets, and these major cities are the markets with the highest sales and revenue. They are also the key areas that Dongling Hi-Tech's marketing department focuses on, so they prefer to operate in these areas.

Other suggestions include placing production bases in the provincial capital of Hanxi or other locations with abundant auto parts supply chains, and so on.

To be honest, these proposals all have their own interests involved, but in reality, they are not driven by selfish motives; they are simply based on their own considerations.

Just as things were about to reach a stalemate and a new round of arguments was about to begin, Li Dongling couldn't help but chuckle, then shook his head and rubbed his cheeks.

After fiddling with the custom-made Zorro metal lighter in his hand, Li Dongling put it away. "Who says we can only build one car production base?"

"Dongling High-Tech's first automobile production base will be located in Pingyang!"

Li Dongling finally decided that Pingyang was his home base, and his home base was destined to be different from other places. This was Dongling High-Tech's stronghold. With a stronghold, at the very least, Dongling High-Tech Automobile would have the Hanxi automobile market as its basic base!

As long as it's in Pingyang and Hanxi, Dongling Hi-Tech can get unconditional support. Any competitor that comes to this territory will have to give Dongling Hi-Tech a wide berth.

However, when they arrived in places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, there were already established local car companies. These companies were the favored ones, and while they might value Dongling High-Tech's car production base, there was still a difference in how they treated them.

It's highly unlikely that Dongling High-Tech's Land Rover will be among the vehicles ordered by local municipal government departments, government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and other organizations!

Moreover, automobile production bases typically require large plots of land, are located in the suburbs, and have significant issues with supporting infrastructure.

There's no need to worry about this in Pingyang. No matter how remote it is, the Pingyang municipal government will provide roads, water, electricity, and public transportation. But if it's located in other places, it's uncertain whether they will be able to help Dongling High-Tech in the same way.

"In the future, when Dongling High-Tech needs to build its second or third automobile production base, it can be located in Shanghai, Beijing, or other places!"

Upon hearing Li Dongling's decision, Ren Yuefeng, Hu Zixian, and the others felt that that day was still a pipe dream.

The cars produced at this first car production base may not even sell, yet they're already talking about a second one. That's a huge exaggeration.

Unless Dongling High-Tech's Land Rover becomes an instant bestseller upon release, and Pingyang's production capacity simply can't keep up, then they'll probably need to expand production.

The Dongling High-Tech Automobile Production Base, located in Pingyang, has a designed capacity of only 50,000 vehicles in its first phase, which is basically just a trial run.

The philanthropist Li made the final decision to locate the first automobile production base in Pingyang. The remaining question was whether to place the production base in the Shangguan Economic Development Zone or the Airport Economic Zone, which actually made little difference.

"Taining, the automotive department needs to do a good job in planning and design. We can't just focus on the first phase of the project. We need to reserve enough space for future capacity expansion."

Companies in the parts and components supply chain also need to reserve land, and sufficient land needs to be properly planned!

Li Dongling explained this to Wei Taining, the manager of the automotive department.

(End of this chapter)