My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 517 Combining Long, Medium, and Short Techniques is the Key to Effective Combination Skills
But that's all there is to it.

Wei Dong saw that in the distance, the old leader's secretary was peeking around, looking for someone.

He pulled out his business card: "It's best not to tell anyone else. Prepare copies of all your academic information and send them over. Leave your contact number, and I'll help you make arrangements. Studying computers is really useful."

After saying that, he headed in that direction.

These days, as long as you can study abroad, it doesn't matter what you study. Didn't Wei Dong from Pingjing University explain this to you before? Those senior students were writing letters to North American universities, hoping to get lucky and go abroad.

The gap is too big.

What Wei Dong conveyed to his former leader was: "Compared to the ghost town, the entire Three Gorges area lags far behind in the utilization of tourism resources."

The veteran revolutionary must have felt utterly astonished, as if his skull had been pried open: "Tourism resources? You can make money from that?"

Let Wei Dong explain: "Actually, only a very small number of tourism projects can truly make money, and only a small number of people make a living from tourism projects. But if you think of tourism as an engineering project, it becomes much easier to understand."

Of course, Wei Dong's solution is still a complex one: "In the long run, developing corn planting is a fundamental way to solve the income problem of cash crops for farmers in the mountainous areas of Shangzhou. However, this is a rigorous industrial investment that needs to be done step by step. I don't have the ability to come up with one or two hundred million yuan for construction right now, and the construction process will not release too much labor force, so this is a long-term solution."

The old leader listened intently and nodded slowly.

"The most effective short-term solution is to export construction labor to Shanghai and Jiangzhou. This will bring capital back to the region and could even create the main demand for housing in their respective counties."

"At the same time, we will expand the local production capacity of our sanitary napkin factory and draw more labor from rural areas to factories. Combined, these two initiatives will result in the export of tens of thousands of workers this year, creating greater productivity."

For impoverished mountainous areas with a rural population of seven or eight million, the per capita agricultural output value is less than four hundred yuan, which means that they earn less than one yuan a day by toiling in the fields.

The ability to dramatically increase profits by nearly tenfold is certainly a significant and substantial improvement.

More importantly, if this profit isn't spent on things like eating and drinking in rural areas, but instead used to buy a house in the city.

This money has flowed into productive investment throughout the Shangzhou region, boosting industries such as construction, building materials, decoration, and furniture.

Wei Dong pondered that this might be the main reason why, starting in the late 1990s, urbanization became increasingly popular, and farmers began to buy houses in the city.

Wei Dong certainly doesn't understand who is driving this nationwide urbanization process, or how it has been continuously adjusted and piloted based on the current situation before being promoted.

But now we can definitely do a localized test in Shangzhou.

Wei Dong proposed a solution: "So, in addition to recommending that all counties under the jurisdiction of Shangzhou start promoting the construction of commercial housing, which can be purchased regardless of whether one has a rural or urban household registration, we should gradually expand the infrastructure construction in each county. If you want to get rich, build roads first. The biggest problem in the Shangzhou area is that there are too many remote towns and villages in the mountains."

The old leader slowly shook his head again: "Have you considered that these large-scale construction projects might lead to a surge in corruption across the country?"

This is based on human nature.

Wei Dong understood very well: "To prevent corruption, should we just stay poor? Shouldn't the correct approach be to implement anti-corruption measures as much as possible? Yes, when carrying out construction in urban and rural areas, we definitely need the support of the local governments. If there are no benefits, such support will be greatly reduced. But can we separate money from power? Construction is the business of commercial organizations, and doing a good job in supporting them can lead to promotion."

His former boss jokingly scolded him, "You can't say that!"

Then he asked, "So, you'll lead this construction project?"

Wei Dong shook his head: "Now when I go back to Shangzhou, so many people at the dock look at me differently. If I get involved in everything, won't I become a tyrant? I only opened the food factory to show you the certificate for a commodity economy and a market economy. You also gave me the responsibility to develop Beijiaochang. All of this is to explore for reform. I am willing to take this explosive pack to explore the way. But everything has its limits. If I can control everything in Shangzhou, I'm afraid I won't be able to avoid trouble for long."

The old leader gave Rang Weidong a deep look: "At this time, many people are thinking of charging forward desperately. You can see the trap ahead, so what can you do?"

Wei Dong volunteered: "I chose the most thankless task, to learn from the ghost town and gradually build tourism facilities. This process will release a lot of labor, and we may not see any benefits for more than ten or twenty years, but I will do it slowly and try to bring job opportunities to the surrounding mountainous towns."

The old leader who was arguing with Rang Weidong two years ago that commodity economy was just about moving commodities around certainly couldn't see the cunning aspect of Rang Weidong's thinking.

His eyes immediately lit up: "How do you build it? Tell me, tell me!"

"The Three Gorges is very famous, but what exactly can you see there?" Let Wei Dong explain in detail.

"The most famous one is Kuimen, which stands there like a huge door..." If I hadn't thought about it carefully last night, I would definitely have let it slip.

Wei Dong remembers that later banknotes featured domestic scenic spots on the back, with the Three Gorges' unique and perilous features appearing twice.

This demonstrates its nationally renowned and important status. It's truly a pity that such a vast treasure trove cannot be profited from. "Everyone only knows how to look up at towering mountains from the ship, but the view from the mountaintop is actually the most magnificent and beautiful!"

The old leader was astonished: "How did you know!"

Wei Dong had plenty of excuses: "I've heard herb gatherers and farmers mention it, so I'm spending money to build a road to the top of the mountain, free of charge, so people can climb up and see it for free."

He also brought a Three Gorges map that can be bought anywhere in the city, with a beautiful picture of the Qutang Gorge on the cover.

Following the angle of his finger, on the mountain peaks that had been carved by a knife and axe: "Look, just along this line, we'll build a walking path all the way up to the highest viewing platform in the entire Three Gorges."

The old leader, initially lost in thought, then frowned: "I wonder if I'll ever be able to go up and see it in my lifetime. I've worked my whole life here, and it's free... Didn't you say that this doesn't fit the market economy?"

Wei Dong gestured: "You think climbing up is easy? It's deadly, very steep. For safety, you have to walk a lot of 'trails' to double the distance. So, a cable car was built next to it, and you have to pay for a ticket. You also have to pay to be carried up in a sedan chair, right? Now, we're using machinery to solve the problem. If the price is right, many people will choose to ride up."

The old leader clapped his hands with a hearty laugh: "Good, good, good, this is great! This will attract a lot of tourists!"

Wei Dong was not so optimistic: "It will be difficult to attract a large number of tourists in the next five to ten years. Most of the current tourists are on business trips and visit the Three Gorges on the side. Therefore, Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang are the main tourist attractions. Anxi, Chengdu, and even Jiangzhou are better than Shangzhou. And 99% of those who take a boat down the river from Jiangzhou will not disembark for a visit to the Three Gorges. The Three Gorges attractions are completely free."

The old leader, no longer maintaining his composure in front of others, completely relaxed before frowning again: "Then what should we do?"

Wei Dong then presented the facts: "Even if it brings in a lot of tourists, few people can actually make money from it. The vast majority of farmers won't get involved. So we need to learn from the experience of ghost towns. Look at how they've built their underworlds."

He actually knew that the ghost town had been developed over the decades, with several mountains and even the area across the river becoming tourist attractions, encompassing the entire county.

It is extremely large in scale.

The old leader began to grasp the situation: "Is it actually still about construction?"

Wei Dong nodded: "I went to Tokyo to investigate last year. Disneyland is the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck themed area, which generates hundreds of millions in revenue every year. It's basically the same old ghost town trick: eighteen levels of hell, the Bridge of Helplessness, burning incense and praying to Buddha to punish evil and promote good. It's not a bad thing to instill a sense of good and evil in the hearts of ordinary people."

Just last year, TVB introduced Disney's Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck short films, which made the whole country laugh out loud for fifteen minutes every day!
They were so famous that even the supporting actors could live off their fame for a lifetime.

Donald Duck's tone has even been passed down into the era of short videos.

At this moment, no one in the country would have guessed that this was a subtle way of promoting a commercial image.

So that generations later, people will flock to Disneyland to buy tickets.

Wei Dong then decided to follow this line of thinking.

In fact, Wei Dong had never visited the ghost town; he only watched the short videos later.

The former leader had actually visited several times, and had been involved in more research and visits to neighboring areas: "Oh my, now that you mention it, I really didn't expect Shangzhou to be able to focus on this point. Excellent, excellent!"

Let Wei Dong inspire us further: "Who are the most famous historical anecdotes and figures from the Shangzhou area to the Three Gorges?"

Without hesitation, the old leader said, "The story of Baidi Entrusting His Son to His Father! There's also the Zhang Fei Temple, Qu Yuan's Zigui... Ah, this is already in a neighboring province. The main attraction is Baidi Entrusting His Son to His Father, which is the most famous. There's also a Baidi City scenic area now."

Wei Dong nodded: "Right, we do have this resource, but we need to consider how to use it well. The tourism industry is a technical field, and I also need to learn from advanced foreign experiences. The simplest theory is that if you were a tourist, why would you stay here for a certain amount of time and be willing to spend money here? You should be amazed by the scenery, stay comfortably, and eat delicious food, not just fence it off and charge entrance fees. That's what tourism enjoyment is all about."

The old leader understood: "It's going to cost a lot of money to build?"

Wei Dong nodded: "Perhaps some people want to monopolize this scenic resource, but my idea is to make this place as interesting and open as possible, like a ghost town. Locals can develop hotels and guesthouses, and nearby residents can run inns and restaurants, so that as many people as possible can make money around this industry. Of course, the local tourism department must do a good job of management, ensuring that everyone works together to build a good reputation, without cheating tourists or occupying the mountains as they please. Together, we will make the Three Gorges the most famous tourist attraction in the country. Perhaps we won't make a lot of money in the next ten years, but as the living standards of people across the country improve and tourism consumption increases, this place will become a gold mine."

That's why so many people like to pursue a leadership career; it's indeed highly rewarding.

Just hearing Rang Weidong's description, the old leader had already made the decision: "Then you take care of it!"

Wei Dong was asked to reveal his true intentions: "I will work for the state tourism company to invest in and construct various projects in the Three Gorges area. In the early stages, it will be mostly net investment. I will not restrict other people or departments from engaging in tourism. We can work together to develop tourism, as long as my investment projects have a 50-year return period."

This is exactly what he expressed in Jiangzhou before: to slowly and properly manage the fixed assets hidden beneath the water.

By the time even a small part of the iceberg is revealed, it's already a colossal creature.

(End of this chapter)