My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 491 Just a Sample
What does youth matter? In recent years, many examples of people in their twenties or thirties who have risen directly from first-tier cities to the very top have emerged from Shanghai.

It was a meeting of extraordinary people, a perfect opportunity.

The city of Shanghai is also helpless: "Currently, the city has not yet started the urbanization process, and in terms of pace, it is even slower than Jiangzhou. The city is large and burdened. Local construction companies in Shanghai are working hard to build public housing in the city to solve basic housing problems."

As he spoke, he pointed out several newly completed residential areas.

They were all those seven- or eight-story buildings like the Khrushchev Building, all laid out in the same style.

Yes, it's about Jiangzhou Real Estate Corporation, where Wei Dong also holds the title of consultant, commissioning various state-owned construction companies to build those kinds of residential buildings.

Shanghai is currently building a large number of "new villages" in the urban-rural fringe areas, and has not even fully started selling commercial housing yet, with most of them still continuing the welfare housing allocation model.

The person in charge of real estate construction waved, and an assistant or secretary took out their photos.

"It's not a matter of the amount of construction; it's that Shanghai simply doesn't have enough capacity and experience to build a large-scale international community. There's no other city in the country that has both the huge construction planning burden of Shanghai and such a heavy demand for international cooperation. The most successful one right now is actually the electronics industrial park."

This made Wei Dong realize something.

Because they produced a bunch of 10-inch photos, some of which were even aerial photos, which turned out to be of the neighbors just one or two kilometers away from the area to be built in this international community, especially the area where Wei Dong and his family lived.

The computer manufacturing plant, a joint venture with American capital, is basically completed and is in the process of transporting and installing equipment. Next to it, four high-rise commercial and residential buildings, one office building, and a five-star hotel have been built.

The construction progress has been extremely fast in just six months!
Although it was a project invested and tested by several families in Shanghai, both they and Rang Weidong already had a deep-rooted understanding of real estate.

In this most advanced electronic industrial park in Shanghai, a plot of land next to the computer factory has been set aside. Surely the buildings should be arranged in a way that creates an aesthetically pleasing layout?

Isn't this just a standard residential community plan?

Jiangzhou followed suit in building around the Xishan Electronics Building, but they were scattered throughout the smaller streets, each building operating independently and quite generously. This allowed Weidong to secretly plan to reserve some marginal plots in each of the various street blocks, which would become the land for the Xishan main factory to build in the future.

Therefore, it lacks the "cohesive feel" that these buildings in the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park present.

This was already a move that completely outclassed all its mainland counterparts in 1985.

There are many impressive people in Shanghai, but they also get taken down a lot.

At that time, very few people even stepped forward to promote the opening of the stock market, and they were taking a huge risk.

There certainly wasn't anyone who could motivate Wei Dong to push forward with real estate development so resolutely...

I really didn't expect that.

The last time Shanghai handed over these buildings in the electronics industrial park to Rang Weidong, entrusting him with the operation and construction with Hong Kong capital, it was more like a test.

I'm very satisfied with the progress so far.

At the same time, they couldn't wait for the needs of the international community.

It's impossible for Wei Dong not to be tempted by the fact that he was taken over last time, and this time the scale has increased more than tenfold.

It's like testing a beautiful woman. If you're willing to sleep with her for 10,000, you might scoff at it. But what about 100,000, 1 million, 10 million, or even 100 million?
So he's holding on, hoping for some time to think: "I need to think this over carefully. Building on 1.4 million square meters of land will be a huge test of the cash flow. I need to do an assessment with the Hong Kong investors and my own company."

That's already an incredibly strong resistance.

However, the Shanghai authorities emphasized to him: "This is not a simple commercial project, but an important exploration of economic opening up. We plan to sell this batch of international communities to overseas Chinese, foreign companies, and executives of Hong Kong and Taiwan-invested enterprises at internationally competitive prices. Therefore, this is also a channel for obtaining foreign exchange, which is very important!"

Oh, oh, oh, this thought sent a jolt through Wei Dong's heart; there was such an intention behind it.

Wait a minute: "Internationally aligned prices?! Approximately what's the price, and which company's prices are aligned with?"

Shanghai certainly has a certain status in the industry: "Now that Tokyo's housing prices are too high, let's benchmark ourselves against similar areas in Hong Kong."

Wei Dong gasped, "Can this even be sold?"

He must have carefully observed the situation when he went to Hong Kong. The current price per square meter for high-rise residential buildings outside the city center is between HK$5,000 and HK$10,000!
It's about $1000, which is equivalent to about 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per square meter in China.

The price has increased tenfold!

Low-rise buildings like villas and townhouses, even disregarding the large amount of land they occupy, have a construction cost of over 300 yuan per square meter.

Wei Dong is now very familiar with these costs, even though the cost in Shanghai will be slightly higher due to geological reasons.

It shouldn't be selling for this price...

The Shanghai municipal government, however, wants him to assess and consider this issue himself, and he has to give a reply before the Spring Festival.

And when saying goodbye, he held Rang Weidong's hand and said, "We have high hopes for this, and we hope that by then we will see a more mature solution. The demands from all parties are indeed very strong!"

Wei Dong really wanted to say that two million square meters of residential and commercial space would mean 20,000 households... Thinking about it this way, it's impossible for Jiangzhou to have 20,000 foreign residents in the 1980s, but it seems that Shanghai really could have.

The three of them got out of the car and remained silent, clearly shocked.

Two million square meters, at an average price of $1000 per unit, that's two billion US dollars, or nearly ten billion at the current exchange rate.

It's a true behemoth from the 1980s.

Chi Shiming was incredibly audacious: "Let's do it! If we do it, we'll take over completely!"

Wei Dong kicked him directly on the steps of the city government building: "Tens of billions or hundreds of billions, where will that come from? How many years will we have to invest in this project, which covers two million square meters? I'm going to do bioengineering, production, sales and trading!"

Chi Shih-ming argued with him: "Producing commercial housing? Isn't the urban construction company just a housing factory? Why can't we take on this project? You said it will take many years to invest, and it should be developed in several phases. We can build one plot, sell it, recover some funds, and then start a new one. The key is to get it going. Many real estate bosses in Hong Kong have become billionaires this way..."

Wei Dong was completely unmoved by the title, giving him a disdainful look with dead fish eyes: "You try to be this billionaire? I wouldn't dare!"

In the 1980s, anyone who dared to become a billionaire in mainland China would likely have easily topped the list of those who were slaughtered.

Do you think your life is too long?

Unexpectedly, the HK guy said, "I'll come if I want. On the surface, I'll make money and give you property in Hong Kong as a return. If you don't want your funds to leave the country, like Ms. Qin, I'll invest in other projects and you'll have actual control... This deal will probably raise the funds for corn bioengineering."

So how could Wei Dong not be tempted!
"Yes, for the six million farmers in the Shangzhou region, we could immediately improve their corn planting yields, or we could invest the funds in computer chip research and development..."

If the former is a major livelihood issue aimed at solving basic needs like food and clothing, the latter is a technological war in which technology leads the charge.

We definitely need the money.

The 100 million yuan lost at this critical juncture may not be recovered even in ten or twenty years, perhaps even in ten or ten billion yuan.

This silenced Wei Dong, who then drove off.

This fourth-generation Bluebird is arguably the most popular imported car model right now.

It's not as luxurious and expensive as the Crown or Duke models, which are priced in the 200,000 to 300,000 range, but it has a sharp, angular design that gives it a rugged, business-like feel.

Those with connections can even get their hands on a piece of the pie for under 100,000 and then resell it at a high price, which shows how sought-after and profitable it is.

It just has a slightly higher wind resistance, which makes the Weidong feel powerful and swift when driven.

I feel the same way he does right now.

Chi Shiming said familiarly, "I know you're afraid that you'll attract too much attention now. We're only in our early twenties, and it's already amazing that we can manage a residential building worth tens of millions in Jiangzhou. Shanghai has always been a turbulent and dangerous place, but didn't you say that this situation would happen sooner or later?"

Wei Dong retorted irritably, "Back in '83, my mentor in business was imprisoned for a year before he even did anything truly heinous. You could get arrested even if you went to the countryside in Jiangzhou to sell melon seeds. You know how to be careful selling electronic watches. Of course, I would dare to take this order ten years later. But now, one wrong move and you and I are swallowed up!"

The Hong Kong guy offered a terrible suggestion: "Why don't you marry Barbara and get Hong Kong residency? That way, there won't be so much risk..."

Wei Dong spat, "I would rather die than change my nationality, and I despise people who use fake marriages and divorces to do this kind of thing from the bottom of my heart."

He was referring to the rampant fake divorces that occurred in prefecture-level cities later on, all in order to buy houses.

The elderly security guard with a missing hand, who had never shown any signs of getting married, felt genuine contempt for this behavior.

As a result, Chi Shiming thought he was being mocked, so he quickly became serious and said, "I will definitely try my best to get married wholeheartedly and won't cause any trouble."

Wei Dongcai teased him, "Oh, starting to think about marriage? How's it going?"

Chi Shiming retorted without backing down: "Boss, if you dare to take this job, I dare to propose to Jenny and get Uncle De's full support!"

Wei Dong scoffed, "Her second brother is no pushover. Barbara told me long ago that he started building amusement parks in Indonesia when he was a teenager. He was also in charge of the hotel project in the Shanghai Electronics Industrial Park. You're trying to steal his business. Be careful, or it might hinder your chances of becoming a wealthy son-in-law."

Chi Shiming actually said he wasn't afraid of him: "With you, boss, joining forces, I can easily fight him. You're in charge of the mainland real estate market now, so he'll have to find a way to get joint venture projects from you..."

Wei Dong cursed, "You're setting the stage! I'm just setting an example. Once others understand it, those with connections and backgrounds will quickly replicate it. At that point, I won't have any say. Besides, Hong Kong businesses can only enter through joint ventures now, and the policy could be adjusted and opened up at any time. Will you jump ship and go solo then?!"

Unexpectedly, Chi Shiming shrugged: "Why would I go solo? My specialty is getting Hong Kong funds, and I can also manipulate the real estate market to get the right prescriptions from Hong Kong. But construction requires partners. Who is more reliable than Lao Geng? He only trusts you, and I only trust you too. So this long-term situation is our future!"

Therefore, Wei Dong could never feel that sense of alienation towards a powerful figure like Hong Kong boys.

When it comes to making money through speculation, they are exactly alike.

The two were talking animatedly in front, but Old Zhang in the back suddenly spoke up: "If it benefits the country, I will risk my life; how can I avoid it because of personal fortune or misfortune? This is what we should do."

Well, now that you've said that, Wei Dong is at a loss for words.

(End of this chapter)