Chapter 1711: The problem is not the scarcity but the inequality

Xiao Peng's trip to Noyabrsk started with a sauna.

They lived in an apartment that belonged to the widow of one of Kasin's comrades, and Kasin rented it as a place for the two of them to live.

Kasim had been here before and it should be related to his comrades, but Kasim didn't mention it at all so Xiao Peng didn't ask much: Who doesn't have a story about the past?

However, Xiao Peng was very satisfied with this house.

The location is great, not far from Zenit Stadium.

Although Noyabrsk is a polar city with a population of just over 50,000, it boasts a diverse array of infrastructure. Most Russians enjoy sports, so the Zenit Arena is a favorite venue for Noyabrsk residents.

This stadium is also very "Russian". Construction began in 1987 and it was not completed and opened until 2005. However, it began to be "renovated" less than a month after opening. It took another two years to finally open to the public. Since then, the stadium has not been changed at all. The dust inside is all original...

But anyway, it's usually quite lively here, with various competitions and concerts held here. For example, the chess tournament that Vika and the others are going to participate in will be held here.

Of course, don't assume the entertainment here is anything but high-end. Xiao Peng went to a performance, which basically consisted of a few songs by so-called "famous singers" whose names no one in Noyabulsk could even name. Hmm... judging from Xiao Peng's musical background, the singing of these "famous singers" wasn't even KTV-quality, but even then, there were a large crowd, and a casual greeting would lead to the whole audience interacting. In between the performances, a few girls would do some striptease—they danced like they'd never even been to a nightclub, and Xiao Peng was practically mortified.

In short, the so-called "concerts" here are basically the same as those makeshift troupes in Daxia that specialize in hanging around in rural areas.

However, performances of this level are extremely popular here, and tickets are in short supply - it's understandable if you think about it, after all, there are too few cultural and entertainment activities here, and basically there are people who support any performance.

Xiao Peng also learned another secret of how Russians survive the winter: the construction method of the buildings here is very unique - the first major feature of the buildings here is the thickness of the walls.

When the buildings here were constructed, there was a five to ten centimeter isolation layer in the middle of the wall bricks, and there are pipes about one meter above the ground outside the buildings here. The heating pipes and water pipes here are built on the ground because they are prone to freezing and cracking when buried underground. Basically, the temperature can reach more than ten degrees when you enter the corridor, and it is even more than twenty degrees when you enter the room. You can basically go back to the room shirtless without any problem.

How did Xiao Peng feel that this was still Russian territory? It was because he and Kashin went to buy a car...

Noyabrsk is really too small. It takes less than an hour to walk from one end of the city to the other. In Kashin's words: The fun things are all outside the city, such as the Nenets gathering place, so you must have a car.

But where can I buy a car here?

Kasim took Xiao Peng to the place where he bought the car with ease. After arriving at the place, Xiao Peng sighed that he was indeed still in Russia - the place where they bought the car was the Noyabrsk parking lot for confiscated cars.

Being able to sell confiscated cars so openly and honestly is indeed a typical Russian way of doing things.

In fact, Noyabrsk is quite prosperous - at least in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

This is the largest town in the autonomous region. People first arrived here in 1976, and construction into its current form began in 1977. The reason for this development is that it is located right in the heart of the Siberian oil fields. Many people come here to work for oil and gas, so this place is considered quite prosperous in the entire Siberian region.

And Daxia elements can also be found here.

The Noyabrsk oil and natural gas transmission station is a key national project of Russia. If completed, it will play a vital role in the energy supply between Russia and all its neighboring countries. It is also a new energy hub in Asia - after all, the oil and gas resources of Yamalo-Nenets are so abundant!

However, there are really many difficulties in building an oil and gas pipeline station here. It is located within the Arctic Circle and has a vast permafrost zone. The temperature drops to minus 50 to 60 degrees Celsius in winter... There are really not many countries that can build infrastructure here. Even Russia itself can't do it.

So they came up with the idea of cooperating with the "infrastructure maniac" Daxia, and the only brand of rotary drilling rig used in the entire Noyabrsk oil and gas transmission station project was the SR150 rotary drilling rig produced by Daxia Sany Heavy Industry.

The construction company approached Sany Heavy Industry, demanding their rotary drilling rigs operate normally in temperatures ranging from -30 to -40 degrees Celsius. Sany Heavy Industry then further modified their SR150 rotary drilling rigs to allow them to operate down to -55 degrees Celsius. Without these equipment, the project would have taken at least three times longer to complete.

Because of this, the Daxia people are still quite respected here - sometimes there are some unpleasantness because people mistake them for Nenets.

There are hundreds of Nenets living in Noyabrsk. These are the Nenets who have bid farewell to their traditions and integrated into modern society.

It is not difficult to understand why Russians do not like the Nenets - as long as they return to the city, they can get higher salaries than Russians without having to work, and they have free housing, free hot water and electricity, free medical care, and free education for their children.

In order to allow these Nenets people to live in the city, the Russian authorities have tried their best: using helicopters and armored vehicles to take Nenets children to school to learn Russian!

Although from an outsider's perspective, the Russian authorities do this for national interests, allowing the Nenets people to bid farewell to their nomadic life so that they can further exploit the oil and gas resources of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, but as the saying goes, "it is not the lack of wealth that is worrying, but the uneven distribution of wealth." How can such good policies they give to the Nenets people make the Russians who work and live hard here feel psychologically balanced?

Therefore, the conflicts between the Russians and the Nenets here are quite deep, both overt and covert.

Xiao Peng and Kasim took a car to the Noyabrsk illegal parking lot. As soon as they arrived, they were shocked by the large billboard at the door.

It reads: 'Noyabrsk illegal vehicle parking lot, renting and selling various cars, and also undertaking hearse business.'

Up to this point, it was quite normal, and it could be considered as having 'wide range of business', but under the billboard, a sentence was added in bold red - 'Main business: fireworks and salutes'.

Xiao Peng didn't know how to complain.

All I can say is - this is Russia.