Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 1147 The Art of Leadership

About an hour later, the car entered Beixi city.

Xiao Hong said, "It's so fast now that we have the highway. It used to take three hours to make a trip like this."

Xiao Wei said, "Nonsense, why bother fixing it if it's not fast? Where are we going to eat then?"

Xiao Hong said, "Why don't we go check out this shop?"

Xiao Wei said, "Want to go? If you want to, just go and take a look. The city has changed a lot; a lot of buildings have been built."

The urban area of ​​Beixi has indeed undergone tremendous changes in the past two years. It has been basically rebuilt from north to south, with many new buildings, a number of large hotels, restaurants, and dance halls, and a commercial pedestrian street. The overall appearance of the city has changed significantly.

The current Party Secretary came from the position of General Manager of Beigang and is an alumnus of Xiaohong's school. Like most city officials of this era, this Party Secretary likes to be open and bold, and to carry out large-scale demolition and construction. He served from 92 to 97. While the entire Beixi area underwent tremendous changes, it also left behind many unfinished projects.

The most popular term in China in the 90s was "unfinished buildings," and it could be said that the whole country was "producing rottenness."

The sister company's business is located in the south, next to Yongfeng Pedestrian Street, at what is considered the south entrance of the pedestrian street, so the location is quite good.

The group parked their car, got out, locked the doors, and strolled into the mall.

Only the shopping mall, supermarket, and office building have opened here. Hotels and restaurants haven't come yet. The buildings are there, but they're temporarily vacant. The residential units on top haven't been sold either.

Beixi is a rather special city in Liaodong. The city was built on steel, and the city itself was a steel plant and a coal mine. Historically, it has been known as the city of coal and iron. The factory and mine were established in 1902.

The city's population consists almost entirely of employees and their families from these two major mines.

In 94, the coal resources had been exhausted and the mining bureau had stopped production, causing economic turmoil in the city. The reform of state-owned enterprises made things even worse. However, because Beigang was still relatively strong at that time, its basic business was still intact, and its consumption capacity was among the top in the entire Liaodong region.

In the early 1990s, Montblanc short-sleeved T-shirts and faux leather shoes became popular here. A pair of Dalilai and Lao Ren Tou shoes cost 1,800 yuan, women's faux leather shoes cost 700-800 yuan, a pair of Dalilai shoes cost 2,000-3,000 yuan, and Lao Ren Tou shoes cost 1,200 yuan.

In summer, if you stand on the roadside and look around, almost everyone, regardless of gender, is wearing delicate clothes. The women are all wearing purplish-red slippers, and the men are wearing either Lailai or Laorentou shoes.

Ordinary people jokingly refer to the area as "city clothing and city shoes," which speaks volumes about their purchasing power.

With monthly income, one dares to borrow and spend.

The reason why hotels and restaurants haven't opened here is because there are already similar high-end hotels in Beixi, which are invested by the Agricultural Bank of China. So Xiaowei is a little hesitant, after all, whether a city can support multiple high-end hotels is a mystery.

Although the overall consumption in cities is high, it is mostly the working class. High-end consumption is for the business class, that is, the wealthy.

Xiao Wei doesn't want to rely on government and corporate hospitality to develop his hotel business, especially this year when a crackdown on excessive spending on food and drinks and the clearing out of unpaid bills suddenly began.

The mall was bustling with people, looking quite lively. At this time, the commercial activity in Beixi was concentrated in the Yongfeng area. The state-owned Lianying Department Store and Erbai Department Store were basically deserted. The most popular places were the underground air-raid shelter mall and the Yongfeng area.

After wandering around upstairs and downstairs without disturbing anyone in the mall, Xiao Hong and Qin Xuemei each bought a down jacket, and the group went out to eat on the pedestrian street.

There's a congee shop right here. Xiao Hong looked up at the big sign and said, "Let's eat this, congee. It feels like it's been a long time since I've had congee."

A few people went into the porridge shop. There weren't many people, so they found a seat and ordered.

Wang Jiwei flipped through the menu and said, "These dishes aren't cheap. Is it really that expensive here?"

Xiao Wei said, "Most of the people here are workers with stable incomes, and the cost of living is slightly higher than in other places. But we don't operate in the mass market, so we're hesitant to come in now."

Qin Xuemei said, "It looks alright. Look at that shoe market next door. Our shopping mall has quite a few nightclubs, dance halls, karaoke bars, and big hotels and restaurants all along this side."

Xiao Wei shook his head: "The industrialization here is too severe. Many of those big hotels and restaurants are state-owned, or run by some rich kids in the city. Places like Dongfang Bath Center, Tiantian Fishing Port, and Taizicheng are examples. Jinding is owned by the Agricultural Bank of China. They're not on the same path as us."

Xiao Hong asked, "Is the Golden Tripod... is it that one?"

Xiao Wei nodded: "Yes, the one who jumped off the building."

Qin Xuemei said, "Look, I don't understand any of what you're saying. How can I dare to come and work here? What if something goes wrong?"

Xiao Hong said, "You could stay in school your whole life and still not understand, and you won't learn these things there. That's why I'm calling you over to help. You'll only know what it's like once you get involved and do it yourself. How will you understand if you don't actually experience it?"

Qin Xuemei stared wide-eyed: "No, is it true that only university graduates and such can become cadres and leaders? I thought, I thought..."

Xiao Hong said, "That's because the government and state-owned enterprises only care about academic qualifications and connections, not abilities. That's why there are laymen directing experts everywhere. Can't you see what state-owned enterprises are like now? It's because they lack ability. Rank and ability have absolutely nothing to do with each other."

Xiao Wei said, "Xiao Hui and I went to a meeting. Basically, all the people in the Federation of Industry and Commerce and other associations were state-owned enterprises. They arranged the seats according to their ranks, and they acted very high and mighty. When we asked, we found out that they were all managers and factory directors of some company or enterprise, and they were very arrogant."

Upon inquiring, I learned that those companies and organizations all relied on government subsidies and couldn't even pay salaries. I don't know where their confidence came from. Then they acted like they were pontificating, trying to lecture us.

Xiao Hong said, "In their minds, whether a company makes money or not is the country's business, and has nothing to do with him personally. He's all that when he gets promoted, he's all that. Anyway, even if this factory closes down, he'll still be a leader somewhere else, eating and drinking as usual. Whether the workers get paid or not has absolutely nothing to do with him in their minds."

Qin Xuemei blinked: "So bad? And yet she can be a leader?"

Xiao Hong said, "You haven't seen enough of the world. Workers aren't getting paid, but the leaders are spending all their time in restaurants and hotels, buying cars worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. Then they'll just be transferred to another place and continue being leaders."

Xiao Wei said, "Order the food, eat and leave quickly, what's the point of saying all this?"

Xiao Hong and Qin Xuemei discussed and ordered a few dishes, each of them asked for a bowl of porridge, and then returned the menu to the waiter.

The food came out pretty quickly, but the plates were rather small. This really is an expensive place; no wonder there were so few people.

The group didn't say anything more, finished their meal, got into the car, and headed towards the county town.

This section is a mountain road and dirt road, which Xiaowei definitely wouldn't dare to drive. He might dare to drive alone, but what about a car full of people?

(End of this chapter)