After the ship entered the international waterway, the five-star red flag on board was raised. In the distance, various flags were also flying on other ships.
After a continuous 48-hour voyage, the ship finally arrived in Shanghai.
Upon arriving at the Shiliupu Wharf, the group disembarked and saw countless ships of all sizes moored on the Huangpu River, many of which were ocean-going vessels flying foreign flags, creating a bustling and lively scene.
Shanghai, the largest city in China and an international metropolis, was a place that countless people wanted to go to at that time.
In those days, whether it was a watch, a bicycle, a sewing machine, or a radio, as long as it had the word "Shanghai" on it, it was synonymous with the best of its kind.
Chen Weimin, who was visiting Shanghai for the first time, was unsurprisingly bewildered as soon as he got off the ship, unable to distinguish east from west.
Fortunately, Sheng Xiping was with them. After disembarking, the two took a motorized tricycle to a place to check into their accommodation.
These days, when people come to Shanghai for business or on business trips, they can't just go wherever they want to stay.
Instead, a department responsible for all hotel accommodations in the city would call each hotel to arrange delivery.
Sheng Xiping and his group arrived at the relevant department by car and took out the letter of introduction they had brought with them.
After looking at it, the other party picked up the phone and spoke in a language that Sheng Xiping and the others couldn't understand. Then, they hung up and arranged for someone to take Sheng Xiping and Chen Weimin to their accommodation.
The hotel that Sheng Xiping and his group were assigned to was located on Changning Road and Loushan Pass Road.
From a modern perspective, it's just an ordinary little inn.
But for the time, it looked pretty good. The hotel was right next to the street, and the trees on both sides of the road were already lush and leafy, casting dappled shadows.
"Brother Xiping, what kind of tree is this? There are so many tree species in our forest farm, how come I've never seen this kind of tree before?"
After the two checked in, Chen Weimin leaned against the window, looking at the tall trees outside, and asked curiously.
"I think it's a sycamore tree? I'm not too sure either," Sheng Xiping said casually, glancing outside.
“We also have this kind of tree in my hometown. I remember when I was a child, I went back with my parents and I even pulled up the saplings that my uncle’s family had planted. I think it was this kind of thing.”
It was a very distant memory, and Sheng Xiping couldn't remember it very clearly.
He was only six or seven years old at the time, and he was quite mischievous. He pulled up a lot of saplings that were planted in his uncle's yard.
The Sheng and Chen families are from nearby hometowns, so they are considered to be from the same region.
Because of his health condition, Chen Weimin has difficulty going out and has not been back to his hometown since the accident, so he does not know what his hometown is like.
The hotel where the two stayed had two floors. They stayed on the second floor in a large room with bunk beds, which could accommodate more than forty people.
Most of the residents were from the south, and Sheng Xiping and Chen Weiguo couldn't understand what others were saying.
The hotel has a bathhouse where guests can shower for free, but there is no restaurant. Guests have to go out to buy food or bring their own lunchboxes to the hotel's canteen.
The food here is very different from that in Northeast China. There are no noodles; we eat indica rice, which doesn't taste as good as Northeast rice and is quite coarse.
All of this is negotiable; they're here to get things done, not to enjoy themselves.
But the drinking water in Shanghai is terrible; it has a strange taste.
No matter what kind of tea you use, or how much tea you put in, you can't suppress that strange taste.
Chen Weimin secretly complained to Sheng Xiping, "Shanghai is quite developed, everything looks good, but the water here is really incomparable to the water in Changbai Mountain. The water there is sweet."
“Yes, the water back home tastes better than this.” Sheng Xiping nodded.
That's true. The Changbai Mountain area has various high-quality mineral springs, abundant underground water resources, and high-quality water in the upper layers.
Otherwise, why would so many mineral water plants be located in the Changbai Mountain area in later generations?
Sheng Xiping and his group arrived at a good time of year; it wasn't too hot in Shanghai yet, and they were quite comfortable. After resting for one night, they were heading to the prosthetics factory the next day.
The prosthetics factory is located on Jiaozhou Road in Jing'an District, which seems to be in the city center, while Sheng Xiping and his friends live in Changning District, which is on the outskirts.
Sheng Xiping specifically asked around and was told that if he wanted to take the bus, he would have to change buses several times along the way.
You need to buy a map of Shanghai's urban transportation system and follow it to find your way around. It's troublesome, but cheap.
Sheng Xiping thought for a moment and decided it was better not to cause trouble. What if the two of them got lost in such a big city?
So, Sheng Xiping used the hotel's landline phone to call a motorized tricycle, the kind with a tin roof called a "bengbengbeng".
Sheng Xiping helped Chen Weimin into the tricycle. The tricycle turned east and west, twisting and turning, passing through many places along the way. It felt like they had traveled quite a distance before finally arriving at the factory they were going to.
This was the only prosthetics factory in Shanghai at the time, and also the largest prosthetics factory in the country. People with disabilities from all over the country came here to get prosthetics.
The streets and alleys in front of the factory are not wide, but the prosthetics factory covers a large area and has many workshops.
Once you enter the factory gate, you can hear the machines roaring inside the workshop, and you can see people operating lathes in the open workshop, a scene of bustling activity.
One of the warehouses was quite large, filled with finished thigh prostheses, neatly arranged, seemingly numbering in the hundreds.
If a timid person saw this, they might be terrified.
Sheng Xiping glanced at it abruptly and was startled, while Chen Weimin's face turned pale.
Sheng Xiping led Chen Weimin to a person in charge of the factory, pulled the man aside, and took out two red ginseng roots, as well as some Northeast specialties such as wood ear fungus and pine nuts from their pockets.
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