Chapter 209: Reflections after the Investigation

Lin Ruoyan compared the local climate and felt that high-rise residential buildings in southern China might be more suitable for the local area.

China's climate varies significantly from south to north. In the humid and hot south, building a home isn't about orientation, but ventilation is crucial. For a large tower with a patio, rooms may not be exposed to direct sunlight, but they must be able to achieve natural ventilation through opening windows.

This type of large tower design was a popular style in China around the turn of the millennium. In the north, exterior walls were minimized, creating square, north-south, and transparent buildings. In the south, designs were more exaggerated and unrestrained, emphasizing ventilation and sun protection. In Guangdong Province in particular, many high-rise residential buildings have borrowed from the styles of Hong Kong and Singapore, featuring a compact, refined design and a strong sense of human touch.

Such buildings typically house six to eight households per floor, each with three or four bedrooms, open terraces, and ample natural ventilation. Windows are carefully shielded from sunlight and rain, and large balconies with drainage and sinks are provided. Common corridors can be open and windowless, with wider hallways and multiple large elevators, making them ideal for local families.

In this area, it's common for a woman with several children to apply for these free social housing projects. These children may not have a single father, and their fathers may not live with them. There's no way around it; the local community is very open-minded, with high rates of unmarried pregnancy and divorce, and a fertility rate much higher than in developed countries. To accommodate these single-parent families with many children, policies are tilted to make it easier for larger families to apply for social housing.

Therefore, unlike small, one- or two-bedroom apartments in China, locals often consider multiple bedrooms, large kitchens, ideally with space for double sinks, and separate wet and dry bathrooms suitable for multiple people. From the outset, the interior decoration must be complete; the house must not be delivered bare-bones. The quality and efficiency of local renovations are simply pitfalls.

To sum up, it is truly good to design products based on the local family structure and the real needs of social housing.

As for standardization, China has extensive experience in mass-producing large towers. Once scale is achieved, all costs can be reduced. However, I've heard that there's essentially no suitable supporting building materials industry in the region. In the past, major domestic companies built bridges and roads by shipping everything from China. While local sand and stone are available, cement production hasn't kept pace. Other large-scale prefabricated building materials industries have also stagnated for decades, with severely lagging production capacity.

If large, high-rise buildings are to be built, downstream companies must follow suit, or closely connect with shipping. Shipping from China takes about 45 days. Shipping containers arrive and then return empty, so it's impossible. Local production must be considered, or local products must be sold on the way back to avoid empty shipments.

This actually involves the question of what local products can be exported. While petroleum and minerals are transported by specialized vessels, are there any other semi-finished and processed goods that can be shipped in large containers? If not, is it more cost-effective to set up a factory locally?

Lin Ruoyan's mind was swirling with questions, each requiring her own investigation. Fortunately, Lu Wei possessed a strong command of languages ​​and, having previously worked on special operations teams, was a masterful intelligence provider. While Lin Ruoyan possessed a wealth of information that couldn't be publicly investigated, Lu Wei always had access to reliable sources. By combining their knowledge of both the legal and legal worlds, many of their doubts could be easily resolved.

Hua Mengmeng and Chen Jun have been busy these days and have specifically investigated the local hotel industry.

In the past, this region was a popular holiday destination for developed European and American countries. Thanks to its favorable climate and proximity to North America, tourism flourished, and several coastal cities boasted numerous well-designed hotels decades ago. However, in the past decade or so, these hotels have been declining in popularity.

After the current president took office and broke up with the United States, fewer and fewer Europeans and Americans visited the country. Instead, wealthy tourists from partner countries and South America continued to flock to the region, with more doing business. Hotels are gradually shifting from a leisure-focused to a business-focused one.

Most of the hotel's formal and luxurious suites are empty, while the simple and practical hotel apartments with their own stoves and washing machines are in great demand for rental.

There are many vacant high-end apartments and even unfinished buildings that were built in the past in the area. The original developers of these buildings fled abroad and the property rights were nationalized. In fact, there are some opportunities to upgrade them to meet current rental needs.

Hua Mengmeng and Chen Jun brought back their ideas and told Lin Ruoyan that if they bought or rented an old apartment building in its entirety, renovated it, and decorated it into a short-term rental apartment for Chinese people to facilitate business travelers and work, and then set up a large Chinese-style canteen underneath, the benefits would actually be quite good.

When Lin Ruoyan heard this, she thought, isn’t this the prototype of the long-term rental apartments in China?

In another ten years from the time in the book, these long-term rental apartments converted from old buildings will be all the rage, offering services similar to hotel apartments, and also featuring social spaces, gyms, cafes, and large canteens. They will focus on youthful fashion, fast-paced living, and convenience, and will be provided to people working in big cities outside their hometowns.

Doing this overseas might be an idea, but how long will Bolivia's stability last? The original book has a ten-year golden period, but then the president dies, and the social and financial environment becomes turbulent.

Instead of doing this abroad, it would be better to start a pilot project in the country as soon as possible.

Lin Ruoyan was not in a hurry to deny Hua Mengmeng and the others' ideas at this time. She just pointed them out and asked them to look at the problem from a higher level, to study whether a business can be done, whether it should be profitable in the long term or in the short term, and what conditions should be used to judge it.

These two are young and full of energy, but their understanding of the international landscape is still quite shallow. Hua Mengmeng might be a better choice, as she has a language advantage and can access overseas forums to get a true sense of local opinion. Chen Jun, on the other hand, is more conservative. He used to think overseas was a good option, but now believes that the domestic economy has great potential and there's no need to invest too much energy abroad.

Lin Ruoyan wanted them to discover for themselves that not all countries in the world have long-term and stable development opportunities like our country. Once uncontrollable factors occur, and there is a problem with the local political situation and economy, business will be difficult. Any profits made in the past may eventually be gone, and only by sacrificing money to save lives can one get out of this unscathed.

Lin Ruoyan came to the local area to conduct an investigation in person in order to seize the opportunity to develop businesses that can produce results in the short term. For other longer-term businesses, she can only plan but may not have the opportunity to realize them.

Lin Ruoyan accompanied General Manager Yuan on this trip and met with senior officials from the province where the housing project was to be undertaken. However, to secure the contract, General Manager Yuan introduced Lin Ruoyan and her team through branches of large state-owned enterprises. Locals trust large state-owned enterprises more, especially for projects as crucial to society as social housing, which require a reliable team with backing.

Lin Ruoyan obeyed all arrangements made by Mr. Yuan and would not show up casually. She would first find out the identities of the key local figures and the things they controlled. When she really started the project in the future, she would naturally arrange professional personnel to cater to their needs.

She knew full well that overseas projects wouldn't go as smoothly as they did back home. This was her first time here, and meeting the management was already a significant accomplishment. Whatever Mr. Yuan wanted from her would be more than just empty promises. She would need to provide a planning and design proposal, a plan for the new town, an estimated investment, and the return she was looking for—all of this would likely have to be discussed in detail after she returned home.