The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 503 80 years, John's life in Yanjing!!!
“…Dear friends, to whom does this beautiful springtime belong?

Belongs to me, to you, and to our new generation of the eighties!
In another twenty years, we will meet again,
How beautiful our great motherland is! ..."

Time flies and it is already eighty years ago.

At this time, the city of Yanjing was also quietly changing.

There are traces of tradition, changes in life, the beginnings of reform, and the exploration of opening up...

It is quietly changing the appearance of the ancient capital of Yanjing and also changing the lives of the old capital residents.

There is no smog in Tiananmen Square these days.

However, people in the south have already started to do business.

But the people in the capital had just gone through that period, and no one wanted to struggle anymore. They felt that this kind of life was good enough and they lived comfortably.

Public institutions are still stable jobs, but positions are limited.

Faced with hundreds of thousands of unemployed young people, units at all levels are worried.

Some parents can't bear to see their children doing nothing all day, so they take the initiative to retire and give their jobs to them.

Therefore, the streets are full of people who have started to "carry bird cages" before they reach the required age.

Young people who really can't find a job are arranged by the street office to sweep the streets or sell tea in places with large crowds.

One cent a cup, no cheating.

As for those who set up stalls and do small business, there are some, but not many.

Most people are unwilling to do this for fear of being looked down upon.

Doing this, it’s hard to find a partner.

Who in a decent family would be willing to marry their daughter to these "opportunistic" people?

Even so, they were often chased around by the "joint defense team members" like "guerrilla fighters".

Belong to the bottom of the social contempt chain.

This was the capital at the beginning of the reform. There were changes, but they were not significant.

These days, there are only two escalators in the entire capital, and both are in Yanjing Station.

One set is upstairs and the other is downstairs, and they always seem to be broken.

People in Beijing even nicknamed them "Yin Yang Lovers", a perfect match made in heaven, except they lacked spark.

There are only a few hotels in Beijing that have Western-style toilets in their lobbies that are open to non-hotel guests.

One of them is on the side of the reception hall of Yanjing Hotel.

In the main hall of Yanjing Hotel, you can buy a cup of Nestle coffee and a piece of White Rabbit milk candy for only US$2, but paper towels are not included with the coffee.

There are always incense sticks burning in the toilet to cover up the unpleasant smell coming from the sewer pipes.

Jianguo Hotel is located 3 kilometers west of Tiananmen Square.

It is the only hotel in Yanjing that provides guests with unlimited coffee during breakfast and is also equipped with the best bathrooms.

Columbia Broadcasting System accommodated John M's colleagues who came to visit here in the summer.

Including the directors and staff of the "60 Minutes" program team.

Being able to drink a dozen cups of coffee in such a multi-functional environment and run up and down the stairs to relax yourself is really a high-end combination.

John from country M goes to the Yanjing Hotel twice a month.

He took the elevator to the fifth floor and entered the office of M Country Express.

Before leaving Country M, John purchased an American Express credit card for $75 per year.

The American Express card enables John to receive mail at their office address and cash John's traveler's checks into US dollars.

John always walked into the office with great anticipation; it was John's only connection with the outside world.

Later, all the representatives of Country M Express knew John.

Each trip to pick up a package softened John’s heart with anticipation: “Someone got a nice package today,” Alice boasted, or “There are some cool postcards anxiously awaiting your arrival.”

These packages are often tapes of the latest music, the most popular television shows, or play-by-play recordings of Cubs baseball games.

There is also John's favorite American TV series "M.H.I.P."

Many nights, John sat outside the dormitory on the dark basketball court, listening to these almost inaudible programs.

He often found himself mesmerized by advertisements.

“There’s something about White Castle hamburgers that you just can’t give up.

The picky mother chooses Jiff peanut butter.

Coca-Cola is just Coke.”

These advertising songs aroused John's "homesickness" more than the TV shows themselves.

John quickly forgets the content of the programs he has listened to, but the commercials can linger in his mind for weeks.

During the past six months in Xia Country, John has not eaten familiar foods such as potato chips, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, bread, hamburgers, pies, cheese, pizza, milk, etc.

In the second month of filming, an English-speaking director of Union Hospital, Liu, told John that he had a parasite in his stomach.

The dean, Liu Zhitai, smiled and gave John some anthelmintic the size of a quarter.

Just like the disinfectant pills used in the insect repellent dispensers floating in swimming pools across the United States.

To this day, John has no idea if the worm ever really existed, or still exists deep inside of him, so he decides not to think about it.

In the early 80s, foreigners were still relatively rare in Xia Country, and hotels specifically for receiving foreign guests were not open to ordinary Xia people.

Guests of the hotels and taxis must pass through the strict guards manning the large iron gate before they are allowed in.

Ordinary people would gather outside the gate and watch these foreigners curiously.

Overseas Chinese must carry a passport to enter these hotels, but a non-Asian face can pass through without hindrance.

John would occasionally invite his Xia country friend Liu Zhitai to the Beijing Hotel for coffee or dinner.

Every time Liu Zhitai comes, he has to deposit his ID at the hotel front desk, and he can only enter after completing the registration.

If Liu Zhitai wanted to leave early, John had to accompany them to the front desk and go through the exit procedures for them.

At the same time, John had to show his unshaved face.

John will be living in Xia Country for a long time, so he will deposit the US dollars exchanged at the American Express Beijing office in Xia Country into the Bank of Xia Country.

Xiaguo Bank is located in an old European-style building on the west side of Tiananmen Square, very close to the Memorial Hall.

The bank staff will take John's dollar and passport and clip them to two clothespins and a pulley.

Then push on to a chaotic sliding transmission system.

The system consists of unstable ropes suspended approximately 25 cm from the ground.

John's passport would fly to one corner of the room, narrowly avoiding a document being signed by another customer, while John's cash would fly to another area.

The Foreign Exchange Certificate (FEC) will arrive at John's window in 15 minutes.

John's passport will then appear from a sliding rope at the far end of the bank.

Somehow, after a seemingly chaotic "flying", just like the bicycle traffic in Xiaguo that John had seen, everything seemed to be working normally.

These days, the country requires all international travelers to exchange their foreign currency into this unique "tourist currency."

Only non-Chinese can use the new English banknotes.

Although foreign exchange certificates should theoretically be equal to the RMB.

However, foreign exchange certificates have many functions that the RMB does not have.

For example, foreign exchange coupons can be used to purchase imported goods or exchange for US dollars. On the black market, the price of foreign exchange coupons is 50%-60% higher than that of RMB.

John had to use foreign exchange coupons to buy goods at the Yanjing Friendship Store.

This tall and deep building houses a museum-like display of merchandise.

He could even find cans of Coca-Cola, which were rare on the market, or even one or two English novels among the display cabinets of traditional Xia country handicrafts and Chinese medicinal materials.

Because the Friendship Store is located near the Yanjing Embassy District, there are always some foreign dignitaries visiting the store.

After three months of wandering outside the old Friendship Store, John had his first misfortune in Summerland.

Three young men came to him to exchange foreign exchange certificates.

Because John needed RMB, he followed them to a construction site 200 meters west of the Friendship Store.

Behind a construction shed made of bamboo poles and colorful plastic sheets, John handed over his foreign exchange certificates.

Just when one of them was about to give me RMB, his accomplice screamed, "The police are here!"

Then three people ran away in different directions at the same time, and one of them was holding my foreign exchange certificates worth US$100.

After John was at a loss and looked around, he realized that there were no policemen nearby and exclaimed, "Fuck!" He realized that he had been fooled.

John tried to catch up with one of the men but lost him in a narrow alley near the train station.

Reality taught John a good lesson.

One hundred dollars wasn't a lot for John, but he couldn't stand it.

At the end of the second week, John went to the area around the Friendship Store and the Yanjing Hotel again, looking for the three people who exchanged foreign exchange certificates on the black market.

Sure enough, outside the northeast exit of the Yanjing Hotel on Wangfujing Street, John saw the three men huddled together next to a pastry stall again.

John quickly approached them and told them to return the money to him. But the three men acted as if they had never seen John before and walked towards Chang'an Avenue, the main road in Yanjing, as if nothing had happened.

John was unwilling to follow them and shouted at them in English, which attracted the attention of the traffic police.

The three of them walked to a bus stop in front of the Yanjing Hotel and were about to board an upcoming bus when I, John, stopped them to talk.

John intercepted the three men and pushed them to the gate of Yanjing Hotel.

Some onlookers gathered around and the police looked at them but did not intervene.

The three men probably realized that it was not worth attracting so much attention for a small amount of money, so they took out a stack of RMB and threw it to John, then jumped onto a No. 1 bus heading towards Tiananmen Square and fled.

The Yanjing Hotel was the only place where John could develop photos and call home.

Its wide architectural façade is made up of three incongruous buildings, each constructed about a decade apart.

The main entrance is located in a nondescript summer country block and is connected to an S-style "People's Palace" building by a narrow corridor.

There is a small post office between the first and second buildings of the Yanjing Hotel.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

Next to the post office is a photo printing office, which houses the only film processing machine in Yanjing.

Taking photos these days is very expensive and requires a lot of patience and caution.

Film is expensive and hard to come by.

In Yanjing, only a few foreign-related stores sold Kodak or Fuji film.

The price for a roll of 24 sheets is usually $5, and a roll of 36 sheets is $8.

Developing film was equally expensive, costing the equivalent of 50 cents per photo.

Every time John developed the film, he would wait three or four hours in anticipation.

Of course, it is not uncommon for photos to be overdeveloped.

It was an extremely difficult task for John to make a cross-ocean call to his family.

The tiny post office is crammed with three single-person international telephone booths.

Every time John went, he had to tell the post office staff his phone number and then pay the deposit with foreign exchange coupons.

Then fill out a series of documents explaining the reason for your call.

Because there was a line, John sat on a plastic chair at the far end of the counter and waited patiently.

Listen to others calling their loved ones while waiting for staff to connect to an outside line.

Usually after 30 minutes, John, who was almost drowsy, would be awakened by a sharp scream.

Then he would dash off to phone booth number 1, 2 or 3.

Once inside the phone booth, John had to compete with the caller in the next booth for volume so that his family could hear his voice more clearly.

The call quality over the overseas call was very poor, and John's voice was often interrupted by various coughing sounds.

At the end of each call, his mother would urge John to go to the hospital for a check-up because it sounded like he had tuberculosis.

Of course John didn't have tuberculosis, it was just that the call quality was bad.

But that doesn't stop him from going to Union Hospital for regular physical examinations.

Here, John's friendship with his Xia friend Liu Zhitai grew deeper and their relationship became closer.

Liu Zhitai not only had frequent contacts with John, but also enthusiastically introduced his wife, Ms. He Hongmei, who was gentle, dignified and had outstanding temperament, to John.

He Hongmei quickly won John's appreciation and admiration with her elegant conversation and charming demeanor.

Once, Liu Zhitai sincerely invited John to visit his hometown, Liujiazhuang.

John readily agreed and embarked on the journey with great anticipation.

The moment John stepped into Liujiazhuang, he was instantly shocked by the scene before him.

Although this small town is located in the interior of Xia, it was originally thought to be very poor and backward.

But in fact it is extremely prosperous, and its scenery and atmosphere are in no way inferior to those of prosperous Shanghai.

John couldn't help but sigh that his eyes had been broadened and his impression of Liujiazhuang became more and more profound.

When John heard Liu Zhitai's detailed introduction, his eyes widened.

Liu Zhitai told him that this place used to be just a remote and secluded mountain valley with a sparse population of only more than 2,000 people.

In less than twenty years, tremendous changes have taken place here.

It rose rapidly and developed into a modern metropolis covering an area of ​​more than 400 square kilometers, with a population of over 300,000 and four prosperous urban areas.

These words shocked John so much that he exclaimed on the spot: "Oh! My God!"

Shocked, John became more and more interested in Liujiazhuang.

John did not return to the city immediately, but stayed in Liujiazhuang.

He is very interested in everything that happens here.

Here John fell in love with Xiaguo liquor, "Yanshan" and "Taihang", and got used to eating "spicy crayfish" and "Shengfang crab".

There are also those strange herbs, and people here say they can cure diseases.

Walter? John was incredulous. Are you sure this isn't witchcraft?
Liu Zhitai took John to the pharmaceutical factory in Liujiazhuang again. He pointed to the modern production lines and said, "These equipments are all imported from Japan. Most of the medicines produced here are made from herbs."

"Moreover, our products are not only used by people all over the country with good effects, but also exported to Japan and some Southeast Asian countries, where they are widely praised!"

……

During the time John visited Liujiazhuang, he learned that not only was the industry here developed, but the agricultural technology was also not backward at all.

spring is coming!

Pink peach blossoms, crimson cherries, tender green grapes, blue-purple blueberries...

The Spring Equinox is approaching, and all things are about to revive. The northern fields, which have been quiet for a winter, are gradually becoming green.

In the vast land of western Beijing, open-air agriculture has just awakened in early spring.

At the same time, the greenhouses are filled with colorful spring flowers.

John walked into the greenhouse of Liujiazhuang Agricultural Facilities Park, where he saw a bumper harvest of early spring cherries.

The outdoor cherries are still in bloom, but here, looking around, you can see cherry trees all over the shed, with emerald green covering the eyes and red fruits dotted among them. The plump big cherries have already bent the branches.

There are many varieties of cherries here, all of which are bright red and plump, with a fragrant fruity aroma.

The cherry trees here are planted at an angle. It is reported that in recent years, Liujiazhuang has been studying cherry planting techniques.

This inclined planting is to control growth, prevent the cherry trees from growing wildly upwards, reduce nutrient loss, and facilitate flower bud formation and fruit setting.

At the same time, the temperature in the greenhouse is controlled at around 20℃ all year round.

We use bumblebees for pollination and sheep manure for fertilization, without using pesticides, making the production green and pollution-free, thus ensuring the quality and yield of cherries.

The picking period lasts from the end of March to the end of July, and the output of one shed is about 3 kilograms.

“In recent years, our development zone has taken the construction of new agriculture as an opportunity.

Demonstrate and promote technologies such as greenhouse facilities and delayed cultivation.

Continuously extend the fruit supply cycle and enrich citizens' "fruit plate".

Currently, greenhouse cherries and greenhouse peaches are on the market one after another, and the fruits are fresh and sweet. "The relevant person in charge of the Agricultural Bureau of Liujiazhuang Development Zone introduced.

In Liujiazhuang, there are 30,000 acres of greenhouses, from which many seasonal vegetables and special fruits are grown. This is also the first place where spring arrives in Yanjing.

After the Waking of Insects season, winter wheat begins to turn green and the cold gradually fades away.

The land outside Beijing is beginning to show signs of life, and the greenhouses have become very busy.

The strawberry harvest season is at its peak and attracts many people to pick them. Various vegetables that grow slowly in winter also begin to mature quickly and become available in large quantities.

The most beautiful time in the Liujiazhuang greenhouse starts from December every year.

Here, the earliest peach blossoms begin to bloom, and in March and April of the following year, early-ripening nectarines will be available on the market.

Here, in the large greenhouses, strawberries turn from white to red and are sold to thousands of households before the Spring Festival.

What John remembered most was the "Jingxi Rice" that was produced in abundance in Liujiazhuang. No wonder the Xia people used it to entertain foreign guests.

John learned that Liujiazhuang is located in the northwest of Beijing, where the Taihang Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains meet.

Warm and humid air currents from the southeast form precipitation through terrain lift.

In addition, the water of Yongding River infiltrates day and night, bringing abundant water resources to the plain area in front of the mountains in western Beijing.

The west of Beijing was gradually developed starting from the Yuan Dynasty, and the Three Hills and Five Gardens became an outstanding example of the ancient royal gardens of the Xia Dynasty.

"Western Beijing Rice" was born in this well-protected environment.

Ever since John tasted rice made from "Jingxi Rice" once, he has become addicted to it.

After returning to his country, John still missed the "Jingxi Rice" from Liujiazhuang.

John also recommended "Jingxi Rice" to his uncle Ocles.

Ochres is a deputy director of the purchasing department of Wal-Mart, a large emerging supermarket chain in the United States.

At first, Ocles didn't think much of "Jingxi Rice", but after he tasted it himself, he immediately became interested.

This led to the subsequent visit of "Walmart" to Xia State.

(End of this chapter)