Chapter 1903 Sanya Port Experience
In fact, in recent years, more and more foreigners have come to Sanya for various reasons. The earliest railway built by Haihan that runs through the Sanya area is one of the largest local infrastructure projects, so it has inevitably become this The "Internet celebrity attraction" of the times has attracted people from all over the world to come and check in. Almost every day, foreigners who have recently arrived in Sanya come to the train station and buy a platform ticket to take a closer look at this steel behemoth running on the rails. There will also be some brave people who simply buy a ticket to experience what it is like to take this kind of transportation.
Of course, due to confidentiality reasons, not all foreigners are eligible to ride the train to Tiandu. The vast majority of curious foreigners can only ride the section between Victory Port and Sanya Port. Only with the permission of the Executive Committee and accompanied by specialized personnel can one take the train to Tiandu Industrial Zone - this is of course not a treatment that ordinary people can enjoy.
Of course Li Pu and this group of students can enjoy this kind of treatment, but because the time is not suitable, there are no flights to Tiandu Industrial Zone for the time being, so they can only take a bus to Sanya Port for a tour first. Although the journey between the two places is not long, it is enough to experience the ride, and Sanya Port itself is also worth visiting.
Compared with the comfort of ordinary carriages, Li Shu felt that the train seemed to be smoother during its travels, and the speed was indeed significantly faster than the carriages. Like other foreigners who took this kind of transportation for the first time, Li Bo's first thought was that if this thing was used to transport troops, it would be easy to march hundreds of miles in one day.
However, there was no need to ask Ning Qi to confirm whether this idea was feasible. Li Fu quickly figured out one thing. Since Haihan has only built two railways in the past ten years with his ability, it is obviously because Haihan is currently unable to do so. Promote the railway system on a large scale. As a result, this special mode of transportation would be difficult to play in wartime, unless the battlefield happened to be within the coverage area along the railway line.
Of course, given the situation of the Haihan Army, the efficiency of deploying troops from the sea through shipping may be higher than that by train. There is no need to rely on this special means of transportation.
Looking at the rapidly regressing scenery outside the window, Li Bo couldn't help but ask: "Master Ning, judging from the time, you started building the railway shortly after arriving here. It seems that you have already planned it, so this mode of transportation is It should be very common in your homeland, right?”
Ning Qi was surprised by Li Shu's sharp thinking: "Your Majesty, you are the first person to ask me this question. No one has ever thought of this before. You are right, this is indeed the case in our homeland. It is a very common mode of transportation, but the mileage is hundreds or thousands of times longer than here. All major cities in the country are accessible by railway... However, such convenient transportation cannot be realized here for the time being, maybe in a few generations. People can do it!”
Most foreign dignitaries who take a train for the first time will be amazed at the way this means of transportation operates. Some more ambitious people will also inquire about the cost and whether Haihan can sell this technology. But it is true that no one has inquired about the application of this technology in the homeland of the Haihan people, because many people have probably forgotten that the various black technologies that Haihan masters that cannot be explained by common sense all originated from the technology that is said to be thousands of miles away overseas. ’s homeland.
However, Ning Qi is very clear that the level of railway technology that can be copied across generations to this time and space is limited. In addition, Shanghai Han's engineering capabilities and the scale of railway operation that can be supported by national strength are very limited. This mode of transportation will not be available for a foreseeable period of time. It is difficult to achieve too fast a development speed. The Ministry of Construction even has a plan for the Hainan Island Ring Railway, but the resources required for investment are far beyond what the current national strength can meet, so it can only be sealed up and waited for suitable conditions in the future.
For the agricultural society of this era, there is not a large floating population, and many people have never left the state or county where they live throughout their lives. Therefore, trains, a special means of transportation, do not actually have much demand for passenger transportation. Haihan has currently built The two railways in China are also mainly engaged in freight transportation. In the future, the construction of railways in Haihan will not be divorced from this basic demand. Only areas with fixed demand for bulk cargo transportation will have the need to build a railway transportation system.
Of course, in addition to these two large railways, many places have actually built small rail transportation systems according to local conditions. For example, rail transportation driven by steam locomotives has been implemented between the Heitu Port Coal Mine and the port terminal. Small rail transportation systems like this are actually slowly becoming popular in various large trading ports under the rule of Haihan. However, because of their extremely short mileage, the Executive Committee did not include them in the officially operating railways.
The railways from Changhua to Danzhou and between Danzhou and Haikou are still under review and are still far away from being completed and put into use. Therefore, the only railways currently in official operation are Sanya and Changhua. However, for foreigners, the existence of the railway system itself is shocking enough. As for the mileage, it is not an issue that most people care about, let alone someone like Li Bo who likes to inquire deeply.
After hearing Ning Qi's answer, Li Bo had no expression on his face, but he was really shocked in his heart. According to Ning Qi, the homeland of the Haihan people was a thousand times more powerful than the current Haihan country. Is there really such a powerful country in the world? Then if such a country has the ambition to conquer the four seas and unify the world, wouldn't the countries pointed by its soldiers be like ants?
When Li Bo thought about this, he couldn't help but feel a slight chill on his back. With North Korea's national strength, there might not even be a chance to resist in such a situation. But thinking that that country must be extremely far away, I felt a little calmer now. Regarding this question, he didn't want to ask Ning Qi for an answer. If Ning Qi said he was right, he might call him one day. Then he would have to live under the shadow of war from now on.
"Your Majesty, looking to your left is the Victory Port Shipyard."
Ning Qi's reminder brought Li Shu out of his thoughts. He turned to look out the car window and could vaguely see several large ships under construction on the coast not far away. Among them, there seemed to be majesty that he was familiar with. class battleship.
Li Meng almost blurted out to stop and take a look, but then realized that Ning Qi had already said before that the train could only stop when it arrived at the station and would not stop in the middle. And whether he can visit the shipyard or not is certainly not his decision.
As if he had read through Li Shu's thoughts, Ning Qi added: "If you have time in the afternoon, we can go to the shipyard together."
"Then Mr. Lao Ning will arrange it." Naturally, Li Bo would not take the initiative to refuse such an arrangement, and quickly thanked Ning Qi.
Not long after, the train arrived at the Sanya Port Railway Station at the northern end of the Luhuitou Peninsula. After Li Hao got off the train with Ning Qi, he saw another high-ranking Haihan official, Zhou Hengxing, who was already waiting on the platform. Zhou Hengxing himself is from Danzhou, Hainan Island, and he is considered a genuine local official. However, after time travel, he went to Heitu Port to work as a civil affairs officer for a period of time, and was later transferred back to the mainland to serve as the director of the Sanya Port Management Committee. This position has never been changed since he took it, and he has no plans to move. After all, he has been working abroad for a while, and he knows that the place with the most comfortable living conditions in this time and space is undoubtedly Sanya. He personally does not have much political ambitions. An An is content to be a powerful official here, neither high nor low. Not bad.
When the reception banquet was held for Li Bo and his party yesterday, Zhou Hengxing was not present because of other matters, so this was the first time he met Li Bo today. However, he knew very well why Ning Qi arranged for him to accompany Li Bo to visit Sanya Port. After all, this was not the first time he had received such a political task. The task he was responsible for was to let Li Fu fully feel the business atmosphere and operational level of Sanya Port, so as to have a deeper understanding of the local trade environment.
"Since the Crown Prince is here to visit Sanya Port, I suggest you take a boat tour first to see the whole port area." After Zhou Hengxing greeted Li Bo, he took the initiative to mention today's arrangements: "Sanya Port Area is relatively large, so I'll probably take a tour around it. It’s lunch time when we come down. Let’s talk about it first. I’ve already decided on a place. Don’t leave at noon. Let me do something for you!”
The tour route arranged by Zhou Hengxing is to board the ship at Sanya Port, then go north along the Linchun River, turn into the Sanya River at the upstream junction, and then go south along the river back to Sanya Port. After walking around like this, you can almost get a general impression of Sanya Port Area.
"Limited by local geographical conditions, the bay of Sanya Port is much smaller than that of Victory Port. I believe the prince has also noticed this. In order to make full use of the space here, we have also planned a large number of docks along the two rivers. Both sides of the Spring River are basically built by foreign merchants, and there are hundreds of them. ”
After boarding the ship, Zhou Hengxing enthusiastically introduced the situation of Sanya Port to Li Bo and his party. In fact, Li Bo had read some written information about the situation here before, and heard some words from Li Xi, so he knew a little bit about it. He knew that this place was developed later than Victory Port, but unlike Victory Port, which partially assumed the official port mission, Sanya Port has a stronger commercial atmosphere, except that the port area near the sea entrance was built by the government. The many docks and various facilities along the two inland rivers are almost all private industries, and most of them are even controlled by foreign businessmen.
With Haihan's deliberate support, a large number of businessmen invested resources in this area to enclose land and build a port. In just a few years, it was built into an emerging trade area in Sanya.
The Linchun River is only a few dozen feet wide. From the boat, Li Ming could clearly see the vast number of warehouses and business stores on both sides of the river. Moreover, these buildings often had huge and conspicuous signs on the tops. It can be seen from miles away.
"These big signs are mainly for merchants entering the port to easily see their destinations, because there are too many terminals here, and some measures must be taken to gain a sense of presence." Zhou Hengxing explained the existence of these signs to Li Bo reasons.
Li Pu asked: "I heard that there are strong winds in the local area every spring and summer. Wouldn't it be easy for these signs to be blown over during the windy season?"
Zhou Hengxing nodded and admitted Li Bo's guess: "It is indeed the case what the prince said, but for businessmen, it is nothing more than spending money to build a new sign. Here, as long as we spend money, it can be solved It’s not a big deal. Businessmen who have the money to make such a big sign won’t mind spending a little more on maintenance and repairs.”
After hearing this, Li Pu felt something was wrong, but he couldn't explain it. It took him a while to realize that his understanding of money was different from that of the Haihan people. However, there is nothing to argue about such differences. This is the territory of the Haihan people, so everything will naturally run according to the rules of the Haihan people.
Li Pu remembered that on the carriage to Fort Victory last night, he seemed to have seen many conspicuous signboards on the shops on both sides of the road, which was dizzying. This may be a model of Haihan's business.
However, the further upstream you go along the Linchun River, the fewer these signboards become, and the density of docks on the shore is obviously lower than downstream. Zhou Hengxing made no secret of this: "The terrain downstream is better, so there are more businesses gathering together. But the development space upstream is actually larger, and the related costs will be lower. Slowly, businesses will come here to settle down. .”
At the confluence of the two rivers upstream, there were only sporadic docks on the east bank of the Linchun River in the inland direction, replaced by large fields in the distance. There is a large amount of agricultural land in the upper reaches of the Linchun River. In addition to state-owned collective farms, there are also a large number of private plantations. Almost all those who opened plantations here were the first batch of businesses to invest in agriculture in Sanya. Now the plantations here have entered the harvest and return period, and most of the upstream terminals are ancillary industries of the plantations.
The boat turned into the Sanya River from the intersection of the two rivers and then went down the river. Li Bo and his party once again witnessed the changes from scattered docks to a prosperous port area. The lower reaches of the Sanya River are wider than the Linchun River, so the ships docked along the coast here are obviously larger than the Linchun River. Li Bo saw several ships that were even larger than the expedition-class warships of the Haihan Navy. Bigger.
Precisely because the inland piers of Sanya River mainly dock large ships, the number of private piers here is less than that of Linchun River, only about two-thirds, but the level of prosperity is almost the same.
When driving back to the official port area of Sanya Port, Li Bo saw that there were also conspicuous coastal defense forts on the river bank of the Luhuitou Peninsula. However, what is more eye-catching than the fort is the two-story-high signboards above it. The four big characters "Haihan Bank" are directly visible. It is difficult for people entering and leaving Sanya Port to ignore this huge advertisement.
(End of chapter)