Reborn since 1993

Chapter 452: Time flies
Two Mercedes-Benz cars set out from the Li family and drove towards the suburbs of Pingyang. The Li family's courtyard belonged to the original Shangguan Town, which is now the Shangguan Economic Development Zone.

Even though Li Dongyue had been away for just over half a year, he was surprised once when he came back and passed by Shangguan District. But when he saw it again, he was still amazed at the great changes in Shangguan Economic Development Zone.

Li Dongyue was like this, not to mention Miao Jiahui who had left Pingyang for several years. The two of them stared through the car window at the buildings of the Shangguan Economic Development Zone that had been almost demolished and were being rebuilt.

In the very center of the Shangguan Economic Development Zone stands a newly completed landmark building, a giant red and white building 25 meters high, modeled after a torch. It is the symbol of the Shangguan Economic Development Zone and also its most important industry.

There are many lines of words engraved on this towering torch, including nearly a dozen titles such as National Industrial Demonstration Zone, National Lighter Industry Cluster Demonstration Zone, Key Engineering Project of the Economic and Trade Commission, Excellent Demonstration Industry of State Investment Corporation, and Key Project of Hanxi Province. As a result, the project approval for Torch Group by Pingyang Municipal Government can only be written on the last line.

If you come here on the night of important festivals, you can see the blazing flames above the torches within the specified time.

In the Shangguan Economic Development Zone, the first thing you see is the Torch Group Industrial Park which stretches for several kilometers. Hundreds of lighter supporting companies and upstream and downstream industrial chains are concentrated here.

In addition to the Torch Group Industrial Park, various supporting and living and entertainment facilities are also being built around the Torch Group.

Where there is spending power, living facilities and entertainment facilities will emerge. Just like in the past, when the domestic coal market was at its best, even if the coal mines were in the mountains, once they were mined, all kinds of entertainment venues would pop up in the mountains.

Even the entire entertainment industry, because of the coal bosses' aesthetic standards, selects actors and actresses with unique characteristics, and it is impossible for them to be created on an assembly line by a plastic surgeon.

Torch Group also has this capability. When the lighter production lines are started, a steady stream of raw materials are sent to the Torch Industrial Park, and a steady stream of lighters produced by the production lines are sent to all parts of the country.

When the entire lighter industry chain started to operate, profits began to be generated, and the industrial park with tens of thousands of people also began to continuously generate profits and consumption.

Shopping malls, large and small restaurants, hotels, cinemas, karaoke bars, etc. began to appear in the Shangguan Economic Development Zone. In addition, real estate companies also began to emerge and tried to build commercial housing in the Shangguan District.

Shangguan Economic Development Zone and Xicheng District, where Dongling High-tech Electronic Industrial Park is located, are now the fastest-growing areas in Pingyang.

Of course, in terms of funding, it is definitely not as good as Xicheng District. Dongling Hi-Tech Electronic Industrial Park and Dongling Hi-Tech Parts Industry Chain Factory, as well as Chunlan Air Conditioning, Pingyang's second largest taxpayer, Pingyang Cigarette Factory, etc., are all in Xicheng District.

This makes Xicheng District's funding very sufficient. Nearly 70% to 80% of Pingyang's tax revenue comes from Xicheng District. Of course, the land and houses in Xicheng District have also been rising in price year after year. Even if Dongling Hi-Tech Electronic Industrial Park wants to buy land in Xicheng District, it feels a bit expensive, not to mention other companies.

However, Shangguan Economic Development Zone, as a new urban area, is subject to much fewer restrictions and land approval is easy, which makes urban construction much easier than in Xicheng District.

In addition, Shangguan District, as the face of Pingyang and even the provincial government, even has people transferred from the provincial capital, Yanjing, and Shanghai to the Shangguan Development Zone Management Committee, hoping to gain merit and promotion here, so that the resources obtained by Shangguan Economic Development Zone will not be much worse than those in Xicheng District, and even have resources from the provincial capital and Yanjing.

The logistics industrial park of Focus Media and Oriental Times Shopping Mall, the assembly production plant established by Founder Computer in Pingyang, and the Hanxi Software Industrial Park are all located in Shangguan Economic Development Zone.

This is also the reason why those living and entertainment facilities, including real estate developers, are willing to go to Shangguan Economic Development Zone to test the waters. In time, not to mention other things, just in terms of urban construction, urban appearance, supporting facilities, etc., it will definitely surpass other areas in Pingyang!

When Li Dongling and his team's motorcade passed the traffic lights at the intersection, they could see that even though the Chinese New Year was approaching, there were still vehicles delivering lighters driving out of here. One can imagine how large the production capacity of the Torch Group is now.

Although lighters are still being produced in other regions, they are no longer able to compete with Torch Group in terms of scale and cost.

Relying on the strategy of giving away lighters when buying cigarettes, alcohol, health products, eating out, or taking a bath in the bathhouse, Torch lighters have completely opened up the market in China. A number of alcoholic beverage factories, tobacco factories, health products factories, large and small restaurants, and hotels have become loyal customers of Torch Group.

In addition, supermarkets of all sizes, supply and marketing cooperatives in villages and towns, shops at train stations and bus stations, etc. are all stocked with Torch Group's lighters. In a market with a population of more than one billion, the terrifying demand for lighters is emerging, and as a result, Torch Group's production capacity continues to soar!

After passing Xicheng District, we headed towards the suburbs in the direction of the provincial capital. It was originally a suburb, and it happened to be the New Year's Day, so there should be fewer cars on this road leading to the suburbs.

But on the contrary, Li Dongyue and Miao Jiahui, who were sitting in the car, saw that bicycles, motorcycles, buses and cars were intertwined on the road, and even a traffic jam occurred.

"These are all heading to Yuhe Leisure Resort!"

Li Dongshan, who was driving, said to Miao Jiahui, the most popular place in Pingyang and even the surrounding urban areas now is undoubtedly Yuhe Leisure Resort.

In the past, the adults were too busy to go there, but now that it is a holiday, they can naturally go there with their family. The 20-yuan ticket is not cheap. But after entering, they can take their wife and children to eat a simple meal of hamburgers and fried chicken, play on the children's amusement facilities, take a group photo of the family that they usually don't want to take, and the whole family can also watch a movie, play table tennis, badminton, roller skating, go fishing, etc.

Compared with the ticket price, the price-performance ratio is very high. It includes simple children's play facilities, roller skating rinks and other facilities. Other places have not even appeared yet, so it naturally became a check-in spot.

Not only Pingyang, but also people from surrounding cities and even the provincial capital have come here through various transportation facilities, resulting in the traffic jam scene we see today.

Fortunately, there were not too many cars at the moment, so even if there was a traffic jam, it didn't last long. The car stopped and started, and after passing the Yuhe Leisure Resort, the speed picked up again.

The asphalt road leading to Pingyang Zoo connects Pingyang, Shangzhong, the provincial capital Xiyuan and other urban areas. This new road is still under construction and is expected to be completed at about the same time as Pingyang Zoo.

Li Dongling and his companions were driving on an old road, an old road in the suburbs. One can imagine what the condition of the road was like. The car was quite bumpy along the way.

When we arrived at the construction site of Pingyang Animal Park, we saw a lot of construction machinery parked here. Due to sufficient funds, the construction work here has never stopped. Now the base has been completely built.

The car did not stop, but drove forward for several kilometers and arrived at another place with a sign of Pingyang Giant Panda Research Center.

The area covered by the Giant Panda Research Center is actually not much smaller than that of Pingyang Zoological Park. There is also a large newly built bamboo forest behind it, which is used for food for the giant pandas.

In fact, in addition to the expenses of the Giant Panda Research Center, there is another large and expensive project, which is another agreement signed earlier to place the Giant Panda Research and Development Center in Pingyang. The investment in the giant panda habitat in Hanxi will probably also cost a lot in the future.

The best way to protect giant pandas and allow the entire panda population to reproduce smoothly is not to build luxurious zoos, but to protect the panda habitats. Just like humans, pandas can only have a chance to reproduce smoothly if they have territory.

In the past, there were all kinds of news reports about pandas being seen on the road or pandas running into vegetable gardens. In fact, they were all about problems with the habitat.

After seeing Li Dongling and his team's car arrive, a group of people came out of the Giant Panda Research Center. They had obviously been waiting for a long time.

"Mr. Li!"

Seeing the leader, Li Dongling also stepped forward and said to the person who spoke, "Secretary Chen!"

The person who came was Chen Linfeng, Yao Zhengru's secretary and his right-hand man. Yao Zhengru was very busy these days and had no time to spare. He could only send Chen Linfeng to represent him and attend the opening ceremony of the Giant Panda Research Center together with personnel from the civil affairs department and other departments of the Pingyang Municipal Government.

"Manager Fang Peigang, the person in charge of the Pingyang Animal Park project!"

"Director Fu Lang of the Hanxi Animal Association!"

"This is Director He Zehai of the Giant Panda Research Center!"

"Professor Qian Zhicheng, a specially-appointed technician at the Giant Panda Research Center and the most authoritative person in China studying giant pandas!"

Chen Linfeng's job is to have good eyesight. He can see the ins and outs of any place or department in the shortest time and know the strength of each party's forces. These are necessary tasks, and then he organizes them and reports them to Yao Zhengru.

Without this kind of vision, he would have given up his job long ago. Today at the Pingyang Giant Panda Research Center, Chen Linfeng quickly and quietly reminded Li Dongling of several people who had the most say here.

After hearing what Chen Linfeng said, Li Dongling nodded to him, looked at the people in front of him, and greeted a few of them.

When facing Li Dongling, whether it was Fang Peigang representing Pingyang Animal Park, or Fu Lang, He Zeping and others, they were all very warm. They all knew that they would have to rely on Li Dongling, the big money bagger, in the future.

On the contrary, Qian Zhicheng, with the reserve of an academic, shook hands with Li Dongling. After all, he relied mainly on technology and academic research, not on official career.

(End of this chapter)