Chapter 311: Seizing the Day

Zhu Zhao Jiang, who had gotten much darker in Brazil but looked more capable, nodded, "It was okay, I brought back some orders!"

Seeing Zhu Zhao Jiang's expression, Zhang Ao knew immediately that Zhu Zhao Jiang must have achieved something in the Brazilian market.

"Good lad, I knew I didn't misjudge you!"

Zhang Ao patted Zhu Zhao Jiang on the arm, pulled him onto a golf cart, and drove toward the interior of the leisure resort.

Zhu Zhao Jiang and a batch of people recruited into the Dongling Gao Ke Marketing Department at the same time were sent to Siam, Jiaozhi, Singapore, Mumbai, Pakistan, and other places. Most people chose to develop PHS business and the Little Smart market in Asia.

After all, Dongling Gao Ke's headquarters was on the mainland, and cities in the mainland, Japan, Siam, Malaysia, and other places had already opened PHS business. The cumulative sales of Little Smart overseas, even excluding the Japanese market, had seen telecom companies in Siam and Malaysia purchase over 5 million Little Smart mobile phones to sell locally.

Therefore, for those Dongling Gao Ke personnel who chose to develop overseas markets, choosing to develop the Asian market was the safest and most reliable, and relatively easier!

But Zhu Zhao Jiang chose to develop the PHS market in Brazil, thousands of miles away. This choice had to be said to be very bold!

Zhang Ao also had high hopes for Zhu Zhao Jiang. He felt that Zhu Zhao Jiang's personality, that tendency to like to "toss and turn," was very much to his liking. But Zhang Ao didn't expect Zhu Zhao Jiang to make a name for himself so quickly.

Sitting on the golf cart, Zhu Zhao Jiang saw that compared to his last visit, the Yuhe Leisure Resort had many more buildings. The resort hotel had been built and was in trial operation, which would also become the first star-rated hotel in Pingyang City.

There were many other new buildings, and Zhu Zhao Jiang even saw many foreign faces; they were clearly Dongling Gao Ke's overseas partners, who were staying here after arriving in Hanxi.

Now, a bus route from Pingyang city center to the Yuhe Leisure Resort had been opened. Originally, Dongling Gao Ke's shuttle bus was provided for Dongling Gao Ke employees and their families. Now that the bus was open, people from Pingyang city center could come if they wanted to.

However, when entering the Yuhe Leisure Resort, one still needed to pay a 20-yuan entrance fee. Dongling Gao Ke employees and their families didn't need to pay. This leisure resort was originally provided for Dongling Gao Ke employees for leisure and entertainment, so it certainly had benefits and treatment.

With this ticket, after entering, one could go to the restaurant in the leisure area for a simple meal, watch a movie, or choose to play for an hour or so at the table tennis, badminton hall, bowling alley, roller skating rink, swimming pool, etc.

One could also go to the fishing pond to fish for a while. Capable anglers who caught fish fattened by certain "nest-bait immortals" could take them home to stew and drink.

As for experiencing the big meals in the restaurant, hot pot, the starry-sky western restaurant for taking photos, tennis courts, star-rated hotel rooms, etc., that would require extra spending. A full set would probably cost hundreds of yuan.

To be honest, the 20-yuan ticket price really wasn't cheap. But since the bus from the city center opened, almost every bus coming to the Yuhe Leisure Resort was packed. On Sundays, there was an even larger army of bicycles, grandly riding over from the city center.

It was really because current leisure and entertainment activities were too scarce. For people in Pingyang and even the provincial capital, the Yuhe Leisure Resort was an unlocked new map. Many people just came to see the novelty and would run over to take a look.

Think about his past life: every holiday, the country would have some dirt mound as a scenic spot, and countless people would rush over one after another to verify it personally, then spit and walk away. Not to mention now, when travel wasn't very convenient, most people's maximum travel range was basically within the province, or even within the city. People in Pingyang and even surrounding cities like Shangzhong treated the Yuhe Leisure Resort as a scenic spot to stroll through...

To be honest, this scene left the management of the Yuhe Leisure Resort somewhat dumbfounded. The 20-yuan ticket price seemed like a lot, but for maintaining the equipment, environment, and personnel salaries here, it could only be considered a gesture. The bulk of the cost was still covered by the Dongling Gao Ke Logistics Department.

The more people who came, the greater the maintenance cost. Just relying on that bit of ticket money really wasn't enough to break even. But after the Yuhe Leisure Resort found Gao Peng, the manager of the Dongling Gao Ke Logistics Department, and Gao Peng asked Li Dongling for instructions, the price at the entrance didn't rise. Instead, new buildings like the library, basketball hall, and soccer field in the leisure resort continued to be built.

Thinking about it, less than three kilometers away from the Yuhe Leisure Resort, there was a large piece of land that had been fenced off. In this suburb, besides the Yuhe Leisure Resort, Zhu Zhao Jiang couldn't think of who else that piece of land would be related to.

"Brother Zhang, when I came over, I saw that piece of land. Is it also ours at Dongling Gao Ke?"

In private, Zhang Ao didn't have so many rules and could get along well with Zhu Zhao Jiang and the others. Zhang Ao could lead a group of people in Europe to fight to the death with Siemens, and he didn't rely on recklessness. To make a group of people follow him to charge into battle, he couldn't do it without some ability.

"The Pingyang municipal government wants to join forces with Dongling Gao Ke to build an animal park there!" Zhang Ao replied casually.

"An animal park?" Zhu Zhao Jiang asked in surprise.

Zhang Ao nodded, "It's still under discussion and might not necessarily be built. This involves the provincial capital zoo. It's just a proposal for now. When it can be built is still an unknown."

It was no wonder Zhu Zhao Jiang was surprised. In recent years, municipal governments across the country had been tightening their belts to live. They couldn't even manage people, let alone animals.

In fact, this was also because Pingyang's tax revenue had been increasing in recent years. The emergence of Dongling Gao Ke, Feiyan, Torch Group, and other companies, plus the continuous entry of Dongling Gao Ke's industrial chain component companies into Hanxi and Pingyang, solved the trouble of layoffs caused by the suspension or bankruptcy of state-owned enterprises in Pingyang. A considerable number of those people who came out of state-owned enterprises entered companies like Feiyan and Torch Group.

Especially the Torch Group, which had now begun mass production of lighters, plus the start of work by supporting manufacturers, caused the scale of employees in the Torch Group's lighter industrial chain to soar continuously. The wages of employees in this industry couldn't be too high, but it really could absorb employment, and solving the problem of food and clothing was no problem.

After the Torch Group started work, Pingyang's employment rate soared in a straight line, standing out in Hanxi Province. Since the appearance of Dongling Gao Ke, Pingyang's tax revenue had been rising continuously. Now, they had filled the holes owed in previous years, and there was even a surplus.

The three fires after Yao Zhengru took office—preparing to cover hardened road surfaces in Pingyang town-level areas and building the Pingyang freight airport—were all absolute big moves. These projects could rapidly stimulate the local economy and provide a large number of jobs.

To be honest, unlike other places where people coming out of state-owned enterprises might face the predicament of having nowhere to go, now in Pingyang, big projects were coming one after another. As long as one had hands and feet and was willing to put in some effort, one couldn't earn big money, but earning a few hundred yuan a month to earn food and clothing for oneself and one's family was no problem at all.

Not only in Pingyang, but people from surrounding cities and even the provincial capital were now running to Pingyang to find work.

And after solving part of the employment problem and having a surplus in finance and tax, Yao Zhengru's third fire began to burn in areas related to the lives of Pingyang people.

After supplementing the salaries of personnel in the Pingyang education industry and raising them, expanding the Pingyang City Hospital, and purchasing new medical equipment, these were all proposed by Yao Zhengru, and the animal park project was one of them!

As soon as Yao Zhengru took office, he showed a posture of "seizing the day." He was clearly preparing to open a page for himself in the "Pingyang City Annals." He also knew that he only had a four-year term. If he wanted to make Pingyang people remember his achievements, he had to have big projects continuously.

"For this animal park project, the Pingyang municipal government is preparing to build this animal park into the largest zoo in Hanxi and also the largest park in Pingyang. In addition, there are some leisure and entertainment facilities. The cost will probably not be small."

"Brother Li is still discussing it with Mayor Yao. The key is the provincial capital zoo, which also wants to join in. The provincial capital zoo is not having an easy time now, especially the animal breeding base, which is severely lacking in funding. They want to join forces with the Pingyang Animal Park to share the funding for the breeding base!" Zhang Ao mentioned.

Zhu Zhao Jiang looked at the Yuhe Leisure Resort in front of him and then at the Pingyang city center faintly visible in the distance. Although he hadn't been in Pingyang for long, the changes here were almost visible to the naked eye. Zhu Zhao Jiang didn't know what Pingyang would become in the future, but he estimated that by the time Yao Zhengru was transferred, earth-shaking changes would have taken place here.

Zhang Ao took Zhu Zhao Jiang directly to the star-rated hotel in the resort. Now, there were more and more tourists in the resort. The environment, which used to be quiet, and the resort's top-floor restaurant, bowling alley, and tennis court, where one could talk about real things, had also become noisy.

Fortunately, the resort side directly converted the top floor of the star-rated hotel into a conference floor, which could hold small meetings and also had a large venue that could accommodate up to 300 people.

Zhu Zhao Jiang followed Zhang Ao all the way to the semi-open top floor of the hotel. In his past life, this star-rated hotel might only be considered ordinary, but in this era, compared to those aged reception houses and inns, in Zhu Zhao Jiang's eyes, this hotel was quite luxurious.

After arriving at the top floor, Zhu Zhao Jiang saw Li Dongling talking to a foreigner about something. Seeing Zhang Ao and Zhu Zhao Jiang come up, Li Dongling nodded at them.

Zhang Ao pulled Zhu Zhao Jiang to pull a chair aside and sit down. Seeing Zhu Zhao Jiang's gaze looking at the person talking to Li Dongling, Zhang Ao asked for two cigars at the bar and threw one to Zhu Zhao Jiang, "That's the Vice President of PNY. He's here to talk about the Shenzhou USB flash drive patent licensing!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 312 =====