My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 659 A Little Touch Reveals a Vast Difference

Many top architecture students went abroad in the 1980s, but very few of them were able to return.

It's not that Liu Xiaoyong and his two companions have any extraordinary architectural talent.

Instead, Wei Dong inadvertently pioneered a path for private construction companies to receive overseas training.

Liu Xiaoyong and his team went out for six months of training. What they learned was secondary; what mattered was that they had completely paved the way.

Before leaving, Wei Dong was told not to selfishly run away and cut off the training path for others. He said that people would be sent out to learn continuously in the future.

This could be a self-study abroad model for urban construction companies, infrastructure groups, and even the entire Dongsheng Trade Group.

So while the three of them were studying architecture at that state university, which wasn't considered one of the top universities in North America, they did their best to prepare for those who would come after them.

Writing diaries was very popular in the 1980s. The three of them filled several large notebooks with their diaries, drew maps of the campus, and noted where to buy groceries and books. They didn't draw maps of the city because they never wanted to waste time exploring it.

Knowing that these past six months have been like throwing myself into Laozi's alchemy furnace, whether I can develop golden eyes and transform into a talent depends entirely on my own efforts.

We'd have a brief chat in bed at night, like a little battle group meeting.

Now, not only have we summarized a wealth of learning and life experiences, but we have also repeatedly discussed and demonstrated this training loophole.

It's actually quite simple to fix; Apple could add a penalty for breach of contract during the training program.

Because at Citibank, anyone wanting to work in the construction industry needs to be certified, especially professionals like architects and civil engineers, who must hold licenses to work.

Wei Dong thought to himself that the mainland would be different in 20 or 30 years. Right now, everyone is vying for dominance, and standards and rules are being re-established and reorganized.

However, Citibank is already very strict; if you have such a breach of contract record, you basically won't be able to pass various registration exams.

It's not a problem to work illegally, but it's basically hopeless to work in the construction industry where there's a higher income and social status.

Especially for well-known publicly traded companies like Apple, breaching a contract with them is almost equivalent to being cut off from the entire industry.

Get Wei Dong to agree with this idea, and tell them to pay attention to selecting personnel and try to cultivate more helpers.

Lao Geng and I will also select more people for our work.

They are destined to be the three who pass on their knowledge and skills within this system, so they don't need to worry about others surpassing them.

Even if someone becomes very strong later on, they'll only be an expert at best, not a leader who can openly share their thoughts and feelings with their troops.

First, squeeze a table into the construction company on the second or third floor. Once the X Building across the street is completed, the architectural design firm will definitely have its own floor.

The initiative aims to attract top talent to domestic infrastructure projects and also provides opportunities for overseas training for students from major architectural colleges.

When Chi Shih-ming came downstairs to meet, he proposed that this approach could be applied to Hong Kong as well, with Tak-shu and other wealthy families providing guarantees for training at Hong Kong architectural colleges and university architecture departments.

There is a real need for a large number of experienced and skilled young workers who know how to operate in accordance with regulations at various construction sites.

This alone puts them far ahead of the rest of the country at the starting line of the booming real estate market.

No sooner had the assignments been completed than the port machinery team came over. The leader, with the shrewdness and composure typical of Shanghainese, and the broad, thick face of a northerner, extended his hand firmly and shook it: "Zhong Zhenhua, just call me Old Zhong. Thank you for the life-saving contract from Pengzhen Wharf, and thank you for the full support from Guoji Group!"

Wei Dong regards these future pillars of the nation as his most important ally: "We are currently in a development phase and cannot free up more funds to help them, but we guarantee that we will continue to purchase from them in the future. Not only will we choose Zhenhua for all port machinery purchases at the West Wharf, but the National Group will also give priority to Zhenhua for all related equipment for its future development."

As a major port in China in later generations, it would be embarrassing to call itself an ocean-going hub if it didn't have dozens of port cranes.

Currently, the West Wharf only has one gantry crane and no high-end quay cranes. The continuous orders for two or three quay cranes per year are enough to ensure the survival of Zhenhua Port Machinery.

The other equipment promised by the Guoji Group, such as gantry cranes, straddle carriers, and a whole host of other equipment used for container transportation, are actually products that Zhenhua Port Machinery does not currently have. However, this commitment is to support Zhenhua Port Machinery in its research and development and production, even if it is like this shore crane, where imported core components are purchased first and then combined with other domestically produced equipment to reduce costs.

This gave Zhenhua Port Machinery ample room to expand its market.

Old Zhong was so excited that he forgot to let go of her hand, shaking it vigorously: "Thank you, thank you, we... we've had a very difficult year of restructuring, but thank you for your trust. Zhenhua will live up to your expectations and strive for excellence to complete the order! Thank you for your support, thank you..."

Wei Dong pulled her to the window and pointed to the ferries and docks still bustling outside: "We have a small dock ten kilometers downstream from the Huangpu River. We're considering building a small container tower crane. We also need one in Jiangzhou and Shangzhou. This will help us transport computer parts containers quickly and safely. Let's quote a price and sign a contract."

I originally came here to express my gratitude in person, but I didn't expect to get another order. Although it's not as expensive as a shore crane, tower cranes are now an essential infrastructure for ports and terminals.

It is also one of the signature products of Shanghai Port Machinery, so they were naturally overjoyed.

With this thing, we can basically get rid of the inefficiency of manually carrying things onto the ship.

Especially for Wu Shengyun's stone transportation, if there were large cranes to handle loading and unloading, it would be possible to load the stone from the quarry onto trucks, then onto ships in Jiangzhou, and finally disembark in Shanghai, all in one go, driving transportation costs to rock bottom. The reason why the Bund's buildings are so magnificent, besides their elegant and generous European and American style, is mainly due to the solemn aura created by the stone.

Whether or not the White Building uses stone for its exterior makes a world of difference in perceived value.

Producing high-grade stone from deep in the mountains using this low-cost method might cost as little as ceramic tiles.

Just considering the international communities in Shanghai starting at two million square meters, the skyscrapers across the river, the hotel buildings here, and the exterior decorations of the buildings in the north, with so many different uses, all using such luxurious and grand materials, the profits are enormous.

As a result, Lao Zhong listened carefully to the needs and proposed that a second-hand tower crane that had been decommissioned from the Shanghai Waigang Port could be repaired and resold to the small wharf on the Huangpu River.

Then, Jiangzhou and Shangzhou are two or three hundred kilometers apart. These cranes are not open to the public and are used for construction every day. So there is no need to waste resources. We can build a ship crane that can travel back and forth between the two places.

It's a boxy, barge-like vessel with a crane at one end, a specialized equipment boat that can also be used as a barge, making it a true all-rounder for inland waterways.

Wei Dong liked dealing with these kinds of technical people the most, and he kept saying how great it was.

Then they would take me upstairs for dinner and to drink rice wine.

This made Lao Zhong and his friends feel embarrassed because they had come to express their gratitude, but ended up eating and taking things from Qin Zhiming's restaurant. After all, it was Qin Zhiming's restaurant, and no one else should be the one to pay the bill.

But Qin Yuye floated over with the air of a hostess to offer two glasses of wine.

She leaned against her husband and chatted for a while about the business. When she heard that they wanted to buy a ship crane, she frowned and objected: "You forgot, the harbor outside the Tsim Sha Tsui pier is full of these ship cranes. They are all the ones that Uncle Tak and his big shipping companies have discarded over the years. They can just haul a few over and use them. They will be grateful for your help in getting rid of them."

Indeed, Hong Kong is different from Singapore. The latter only gained independence in the 1960s, just in time to catch the trend of container shipping, and all the facilities were built with high efficiency.

Hong Kong's century-long status as an international transshipment port has led to the accumulation of a large amount of previous dockside lifting equipment.

Now, the entire operation has been upgraded to shore cranes, tower cranes, and gantry cranes. Previously, almost all of the hundreds of ship cranes in the entire port have been phased out and scrapped, crowding around the docks like a leech.

After all, while these ship engines seem convenient because they can constantly maneuver and change position, in practice they not only require anchoring and pulling ropes to ensure stability, but also have requirements for body position and angle. If not handled properly, they can make it difficult to enter the port. They are indeed outdated and transitional equipment for emergency use.

Old Zhong's expression immediately turned a little awkward.

Even with internal allocation, a crane ship with a capacity of 100 tons would cost over a million.

It's as if they've screwed over Wei Dong.

But what is the current level of development in Jiangzhou and Shangzhou? Especially in Shangzhou, loading onto ships is still basically done by manpower!
That's more than enough.

More importantly, Wei Dong was not just focused on efficiency. He provided Zhenhua with sufficient production capacity to support its development, and at this initial stage, he forged a deep bond with the future super giant.

So, in a fit of anger, I slapped her on the butt. Ouch, it was quite bouncy. I almost forgot what I was saying!
"Why are you interrupting when men are talking! Go do your own thing!"

Qin Yuye gracefully bounced away, gesturing with "oh oh oh," and then moved the wine glass to the table at home.

She deliberately played a role in prompting and stirring things up.

Liu Jian raised his glass to Wei Dong: "My wife's family started out in the yacht business, so she has a lot of knowledge about all sorts of things, but her macro-strategic vision is much worse. She's short-sighted, as the saying goes. Don't take it to heart. Inland waterway freight is still very underdeveloped. We don't have the need to build a large container terminal in Jiangzhou right now. We'll just have to make do for now."

He then talked about his personal experiences at the Shangzhou and Jiangzhou wharves over the past two or three years.

From transporting sand and gravel in the early days, to transporting citrus fruits to Jiangzhou, to transporting cement to construction companies, to transporting goods for their own business, and to transporting stone materials.

At this level, crane ships are definitely a vital force.

To everyone's surprise, after listening carefully, Lao Zhong suggested: "If my wife has such connections in Hong Kong, why not transport a large number of these crane ships over at low cost? We can be responsible for refurbishing, repairing, and modifying them, and then tow them into the Yangtze River shipping line in large quantities. Wouldn't that dramatically change the transportation capacity?"

They are experts; these harbor crane ships are all square-bottomed and can be used in inland waterway shipping as well.

Anyway, they don't have a power system.

A "wrecked ship" weighing hundreds of tons may even be several hundred tons, because most of them are ballast hulls made of steel and cement, which cannot be sold as scrap steel and no one wants them even when they are being dismantled.

The cost of a crane ship with a capacity of several hundred tons is several million yuan, while those with a capacity of five hundred tons or more start at tens of millions of yuan.

This is precisely how you can buy things at low prices and turn waste into treasure; you can make a billionaire just by doing business!
In another twenty or thirty years, large ports like Jiangzhou will no longer be needed and can be delegated to districts, counties, and townships.

This business is absolutely feasible.

So right now, there's gold everywhere; it's just a matter of whether you have the ability to pick it up.

(End of this chapter)