My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 556 Letting the Water Flow to Raise a Big Fish

It was so smooth that even the old leader smiled.

"You seem to have a clearer perspective from the outsider's point of view. You're quite familiar with the terrain here now? Where are the villagers the most?"

After catching his breath, the Taoist priest invited him to his dilapidated Taoist temple for tea.

I guess they really didn't expect Wei Dong to bring this person along for the hike. They were prepared, but not much.

Following this small patch of land on the mountaintop, the ridge path stretches for three or four hundred meters, a gentle descent that is not strenuous to walk on.

There is a shallow cave on the protruding cliff face on the ridge.

They cobbled together a few stones to resemble a human figure, which could be considered a makeshift statue of a deity. As long as there is a god in one's heart, that's enough.

It shares the same design concept as the dilapidated Taoist temple in the cliff park in the city center.

They weren't very serious; they mostly just relied on bluffing.

There hasn't been any "development" around here yet. Apart from a wood-burning stove and a small pot against the mountainside, there's nothing else.

Even Wei Dong could tell that this guy probably slept in a cave at night, and his robes were very worn out from sleeping in the wind and rain.

Earning 20,000 yuan for this kind of outdoor survival work is not easy.

Despite its tiny size, the place is now thriving with worshippers.

Several sets of incense and candles were lit, and a lot of red cloth was draped over the stone. Some villagers and women were kneeling and worshipping.

The old leader had just frowned slightly when the old Taoist pointed down the mountain to the continuous mountain villages: "It's about 30 or 40 li to walk up, and it's said that there are quite a few falls and injuries while walking through the mountains and forests. We have to rely on building trails to get up the mountain, and it only takes a dozen or so li to get there."

Rang Weidong had already taken the binoculars from Lao Geng and the others, and was intently observing the area behind the mountain village.

The Qutang Gorge is actually a topographical feature where tributaries converge into the Yangtze River.

Unlike most rivers like Jiangzhou, which flow in a forward "Y" shape, the tributary here flows in the opposite direction.

Therefore, when the Yangtze River rushes into the gorge, it also backflows some of the tributary mouths.

The gorge with its iron chains spanning the river can only be reached by boat from the middle of the river where Baidi entrusted his son to Zhuge Liang; it is this gorge that you cross.

This backflow often causes the river to swirl at the estuary.

Beneath the seemingly calm surface of the river, currents surge; swimming in it recklessly is likely to lead to certain death.

This village is just one or two kilometers upstream from the scenic area on the other side of the river.

The water flow is much gentler.

Old Geng glanced at it and whispered, "This side is better than the previous one."

Wei Dong couldn't say for sure that the riverbank on the other side would definitely be flooded after the dam was built.

He could only shake his head reluctantly: "To run a tourism business, tourists need to be able to see the city from the boat and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Qutang Gorge from within the city. But if you come to the tributaries, nobody will know about it."

When it comes to tourism, no one knows more about it than Wei Dong, so the construction director immediately began to observe the scenic area on the opposite bank in the distance.

His approach was to first offer his own opinions, but since his superiors required him to be here, he decided to eliminate all obstacles and get it done.

As Wei Dong was pondering this, Qin Yuye finally followed.

The reason I didn't bring a camera was mainly to ask about the situation: "Are you leaving or not? It's already past 2 PM. If we don't leave now, we won't be able to get down the mountain before dark. There's nowhere to stay on this mountain, right?"

As he spoke, he casually added, "They say going up the mountain is easy but coming down is hard. It's not that tiring, but you have to be much more careful. Do you really think you can just hang on a wire and slide down from here?"

She was referring to a corner to the side, which was only visible from the angle she had come from. There was a ravine hidden by trees and vegetation, which went down steeply and straight down the mountain. After that, you had to pass through a flat area at the bottom of the mountain before you could reach the village.

Because of the steepness, climbing up the mountain is impractical, so villagers have to travel dozens of miles to reach the ridge.

But cable cars are precisely what excel at traversing such steep routes.

Wei Dong even vaguely recalled that many people who had visited the tax compound had mentioned in casual conversations what cable car they had taken and how they had to walk a bit after getting off to reach the viewing platform. Could this be the place?

At the top of this mountain, there is only a small area, no bigger than the palm of your hand. Whether you came up from the ridge or the deep valley on the side, you don't have to walk up.

Only this mountain ridge leads to the rear.

Moreover, what Wei Dong considered most was that no matter how beautiful the scenery was, the key to making money was to keep people here. Whether it was a Taoist temple, a homestay, or a farmhouse, they all needed land here to build.

They quickly called over a few people from the machinery factory. After a cursory look, they felt this place had more potential. The downside was that while the landing site was a few hundred meters from the village, the village was still quite a distance from the scenic area. Wei Dong was informed that the water level would be raised, but he had no idea exactly where or how to address the distance issue.

But at least by this time you can reach the summit. The cable car is just an expansion of tourism resources. The country is not yet in a stage where so many people can travel. We'll take it slowly.

Adopting the attitude of the client: "This is the solution you've been considering. I prefer to build an ancient city opposite that scenic area, one or two kilometers along the river. Should we build a bridge and road here to the village, or take a cable car across the river? Which is more cost-effective and offers more scenic enjoyment? Please provide me with solutions at different cost levels."

Originally just an engineer at a state-owned third-line machinery factory, he actually went through the experience of dealing with the elevator factory and Lao Geng and his group, which gave him a service-oriented mindset and made him treat Wei Dong, the major shareholder, differently.

They repeatedly said yes.

They were going to stay on the mountaintop to keep the old Taoist priest company, and they had brought simple raincoats and other items because they had experience running in the wild.

Wei Dong then told the old leader and the Taoist priest about his initial idea: "Due to time constraints, we will leave first. I would like to ask the Taoist priest to take care of the construction workers. Once this cableway is built, it will be like a non-stop transport machine that can continuously transport bricks, tiles, sand and stones up here for construction. We should first build a Taoist temple that people can live in, the more antique and historical the better."

The Taoist priest had clearly never seen a cable car before, let alone a cable car with a seat. But after Wei Dong demonstrated it, he exclaimed in amazement, "Wow, this mechanical wonder is amazing!"

When Wei Dong helped the old leader down the mountain, he casually mentioned: "I met the Taoist priest at the cliff park, but I didn't know his name or his past deeds. I just felt that he didn't have the greed of monks and Taoists who only wanted to build big temples, so I encouraged him to come to this mountain peak to make a scene. After all, solving the accommodation problem is the key to attracting people here. It doesn't have to be a day trip. But I really didn't know that he had already made such a fuss here."

Actually, I just considered whether or not to reveal this secret.

In the end, Wei Dong decided to stick to his stance and face everything honestly.

Let's not even mention the 20,000 yuan.

The only eyewitness at the scene still didn't choose to lie, remaining silent with a blank expression.

The old leader chuckled twice: "I was wondering why he was here... He used to be a teacher at No. 2 Middle School..."

Wei Dong wasn't smug: "Mountains are not famous for their height, but for the immortals who dwell there. It's not enough to just come up and see the scenery; we need to add other things as well. In short, we need to find ways to keep people here longer. That's why we want to link the Kuimen Gorge with the smaller canyons."

The older leader, constrained by the limitations of his time, must have found it unbelievable: "The small canyon is connected to this place? They're dozens of kilometers apart!"

The Three Gorges is 200 kilometers long, and the latter half belongs to a neighboring province, roughly the size of two counties.

The neighboring province later built two large dams as a foundation, and the benefits were quite good.

The two counties in Shangzhou could only spend money and make sacrifices until their economy improved and they vigorously developed the only selling point, tourism, by finding a place between the two counties to build a tourist airport.

So being poor has its advantages. In order to alleviate poverty, they actually built airports for two impoverished counties, something that some second- and third-tier cities can only dream of doing.

This matter must have been known to the tax authorities in Shangzhou. Later, there was another one in Shangzhou, behind the machinery factory on the other side of the river.

The Three Gorges Airport is located just a few kilometers away from the top of the Three Gorges, on the same mountain.

This is the key reason why the top of the Three Gorges later became a popular tourist attraction, a place that can be visited easily by plane without much effort.

Even with the high-speed rail now in place, tourism revenue here remains low.

Wei Dong felt that things other than the scenery were not enough.

The plan is to spend ten or twenty years accumulating resources slowly, and once the tourism atmosphere develops, the facilities and conditions will naturally fall into place, and that will be truly wonderful.

So instead of mentioning airports, high-speed rail, or the Three Gorges Dam, they picked out the tourism models they could talk about, especially the style of Lijiang and Dali that Wei Dong most admired, and described it to the old leader with great enthusiasm.

Going down the mountain was much easier.

The reason why going downhill is tiring is because the road conditions are poor and you have to spend more energy to control your momentum, but the advantage of the trail is that it is well-organized and not so strenuous.

Wei Dong held onto the old man to help him control his body; he was truly full of energy.

The old leader listened with great interest, recounting how he had fought as a guerrilla and carried out underground work in this area back in the day, enduring all sorts of hardships, going up mountains and down to the sea. He said it was now their turn, and the old man would help him steer the ship and set up the shelter.

Director Zi tried several times to listen closely, but the road was too narrow. Old Geng reminded him to be careful and not to lose his life by only focusing on people falling down.

It took the group another four hours to barely make it back to the Iron Chain Bridge before dark. Several people from the county had come to wait there, wondering whether to go up or not.

Since we had a few engineers available on the mountain, we decided to go together to a neighboring county, which is more than 30 kilometers away.

The exhausted old leader, though in high spirits, held a brief meeting while sitting in the driver's seat.

The successful construction of the mountain trails was acknowledged. The tourism development company doesn't profit from the project; its sole purpose is to improve the economic income of people in mountainous areas. Therefore, this new tourism development model is worth promoting. The subsequent maintenance will be handled by the municipal tourism development company. The county tourism department will leverage this new project to manage the famous scenic spots effectively. The fact that mountain hikers need to buy tickets to enter is enough to increase revenue, but prices cannot be raised. This is a long-term, nurturing process…

Upon arriving at the county town, which was also located on a tributary of the river, the old leader surprisingly insisted on going directly to an ancient town upstream of this small canyon.

He was very familiar with the area; he had fought against the local tyrants and distributed land here.

(End of this chapter)