Hong Kong, Kai Tak Airport:
"Mr. Bei, our people are already waiting for us here." After getting off the plane, after more than half an hour of queuing, Zhou Jiayang finally saw in the distance the building that belonged to him and the architect Bei Jinming beside him. He held up his sign and said with a smile.
"Oh, people from your company?" Bei Jinming looked at his name in the distance and couldn't help but sigh. After staying in the United States for so many years, he hadn't seen his Chinese name for a long time.
"Yes, hey, I saw our chairman." Zhou Jiayang said in surprise.
"Your chairman? Is that the chairman of Hutchison Group?" Bei Jinming said.
Zhou Jiayang corrected: "Mr. Bei, the current Hutchison has been renamed Hutchison Whampoa."
"Okay, haha, it's the same, people always have bad memories when they get old." Bei Jinming said with a smile.
After a while, several people walked up to the sign with their own name on it. The person holding the sign was a bodyguard, and the one in the front was Chen Zhiwen.
"Sheng Chen, this is Mr. Bei Jinming, the master of architecture. Mr. Bei, this is Chen Zhiwen, the chairman of our company." Zhou Jiayang quickly introduced the two of them.
"Mr. Bei Jinming, I have admired you for a long time." Chen Zhiwen naturally knew the person in front of him and immediately shook hands with a smile.
"Mr. Chen, I have admired your name for a long time. Your acquisition of Hutchison in Hong Kong has been very popular in Chinatown in the United States!" Bei Jinming said with a smile.
"I didn't expect my fame to be so famous!" Chen Zhiwen laughed. Many people in the United States know about Red Bull, and some know about Costco, but most people don't know the relationship between the two and Chen Zhiwen, or even don't know. Knowing that these two belong to foreign capital is just like many people in the 21st century who do not know whose brand Pulse belongs to. Just drink some and it should be the same in Chinatown.
However, the 1970s was an era of rapid economic development in Hong Kong society. Its external influence was the largest in the entire Chinese world, as was the immigrant population. This also led to the fact that the main language in Chinatown was Cantonese, and Chinese-owned acquisitions occurred in Hong Kong. It is normal for Chinatown in the United States to hear about this major event for one of the four major foreign companies.
"Of course, in Chinatown, Hong Kong is now the pride of the Chinese. Pao Yugang became the world's shipping king, and you acquired a British bank. Last month, there was a lot of talk about you after dinner." Bei Jin Ming said with a smile.
"Compared with the charter king, I'm still far behind." Chen Zhiwen said modestly: "Mr. Bei, please come this way."
In terms of net worth, the current Chen Zhiwen is really not as good as the world's shipping king Pao Yugang. According to the New York Times's estimate in 1974, Bao Yugang was worth between US$700 million and US$1 billion, making him the richest man in the Chinese world. What is just a child's play, as a shipping king, every order he places can attract the attention of political leaders from all over the world. When Bao Yugang goes to some countries, at least minister-level people will accompany him to receive him. It is said that in Bao Yugang's office, there are It was filled with photos of him posing with dignitaries from various countries.
The orders for large freighters are so popular that they can easily create jobs for tens of thousands of people and affect the economic lifeline of a big city. If he wants to reach this level, Chen Zhiwen estimates that it will take him another five years of development.
As a VIP at Kai Tak Airport, Chen Zhiwen's fleet can drive directly into the dedicated VIP channel. Once the money is available, it can buy various services.
A number of Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars shuttled through the crowd and left the airport.
"I came to Hong Kong ten years ago. The architecture at that time was very different from now." After the car drove out of the Hung Hom Cross Harbor Tunnel, I couldn't help but be surprised when I saw the clusters of skyscrapers.
"Hong Kong has developed rapidly in the past ten years. Let's talk about Hong Kong Island. Basically, 3-5 buildings with more than 20 floors are completed every month. This is because of the economic downturn in the previous two years. After a few years, this number will It may double." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"I went to Yanjing in the Mainland two years ago. I really hope that one day we will be able to see buildings like this everywhere in our country!" Bei Jinming said with emotion.
"Mr. Bei, have you been to Yanjing?" Chen Zhiwen asked in surprise. Although it is not difficult for wealthy people to go to the mainland now, they usually can only choose some designated cities, such as eastern Guangdong and Shanghai, while Yanjing The management of this area is quite strict. If overseas people want to go, it usually has to be a very important official business, let alone two years ago, when diplomatic relations with the United States had just been re-established, and everything had just begun to change foreign policy. It's more difficult to get into.
"Haha, a classmate of mine is responsible for receiving foreign guests in Yanjing. He invited me to go to Yanjing to redesign the local foreign hotel, so I went there." Bei Jinming replied.
"Oh, that's it." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, not talking about foreign strategies, but the 43 Bill in the past few years. To introduce multiple large-scale industrial equipment worth 4.3 billion US dollars from abroad, it is necessary to communicate with overseas, and also need to let people know. Yanjing is definitely a must-visit place for overseas businessmen, technical personnel, diplomatic officials, etc. to enter the country. As a result, a place that has never received foreign guests on a large scale must be at a loss. Please invite Bei Jinming, a world-famous Chinese Designers are quite normal.
Soon, the car arrived at Baiyun Road in Admiralty.
"Mr. Bei, this is the location of the future Galaxy headquarters building. This 5-story building will be demolished next month. With the follow-up cleaning time and official procedure time, construction should start after next year, so I Hopefully, the design can be finalized before then.”
"There are still four months. If we rush it, there should be no problem. But projects like Chen Sheng don't invite bids? Just let me do it?" Bei Jinming asked with a smile.
"Mr. Pei was able to defeat hundreds of famous American architects to win the design project of the Kennedy Library. How can these Hong Kong architectural design companies compare with you." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "Just like Zhou Sheng and you in the United States That said, in the future, both Hutchison Whampoa and Galaxy Real Estate will have a large number of construction projects, and I hope to achieve long-term cooperation with Mr. Pei."
Pei Jinming's ability, whether it is the current historical achievements or the original various building designs in Hong Kong and the Mainland, is enough to prove that there is no problem, it will only be the best of the best. If it can be long-term Cooperating with him will be of great significance to Chen Zhiwen's planning in the real estate industry.
Let me just say that in 19882 in history, the Bank of China (Hong Kong) acquired a piece of land in Central and wanted to build a skyscraper as its headquarters. However, due to financial constraints, other British-funded consortiums in Hong Kong saw it as a joke and thought The construction cost of a skyscraper is definitely not something that the Bank of China, which lacks funds, can build.
But the Bank of China invited Bei Jinming, and finally built the 70-story, 367-meter-high Bank of China Tower with a total construction area of 129,000 square meters at a cost of US$130 million. This cost was 70% of that of a building of the same level.
The cost of a building, especially the super building that Chen Zhiwen wants to build in the future, is measured in hundreds of millions. Each building that can save 5% of the cost is a lot of money, let alone 30%.
"Okay, how about I follow the normal quotation in the U.S. market and give it a 20% discount?" Bei Jinming said with a smile, "This is the first building I designed in Hong Kong. It is very meaningful."
"Mr. Bei, you're welcome." Chen Zhiwen smiled and did not refuse the kindness. It was not that he valued the 20% discount, but that no one only valued money. Appropriate preferential cooperation would make future cooperation better.
Bei Jinming nodded with a smile, and then said: "I need to take some photos here, it may take a while."
"Is it to collect data?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"No, collecting data requires a professional team. They will come to Hong Kong in a few days to collect the land characteristics, foundation detection, and understand the annual wind speed, heavy rain and other weather conditions. This requires very professional equipment and people. I am now Just take some photos nearby, have a simple understanding of the architectural style nearby, and then come up with your own ideas first," said Bei Jinming.
"That's okay. We can walk around. There happens to be one more thing that needs to be entrusted to Mr. Bei." Chen Zhiwen said that he also has a certain understanding of architectural design. Designing a building is not a design and decoration. There are many issues to consider, especially for safety.
Because the geology of some places is loose, some places are in earthquake zones, some places are close to the sea, some places have rock formations underneath, some places have typhoons, or there are extremely cold and hot weather, etc. These issues all need to be considered, and none of them can If you make a mistake, you need to build a building at the lowest cost while ensuring safety. Otherwise, it is easy to spend money to build a safe building.
This is also the reason why large architectural firms charge a commission based on the construction cost. The taller the building, the higher the design cost. It is said that the design cost of future buildings in Dubai is around 15%.
"What's going on?" Bei Jinming asked.
"Go this way." Chen Zhiwen pointed the direction. He was more familiar with this side, and because the bodyguards spread out and kept a certain distance, they ensured not to affect his boss and ensure relative safety.
"I established a China-Hong Kong Fund in Hong Kong. Under its umbrella, there is a project called Zhiwen Primary School. My vision is to build about 30 primary schools in Hong Kong, but this is also because the economy in Hong Kong is not bad and the population is small. Not many, 30 primary schools are enough. In the future, if the mainland can be more open, my idea is to open the Zhiwen Primary School project to every place in need in the country." Chen Zhiwen explained as he walked.
"Every place? The mainland is so big. If we really do this, the number will be tens of thousands?" Bei Jinming was also stunned by this grand plan.
"Thousands and thousands are true, but it won't be a one-time investment. I believe I can do this in the future." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. In the 1980s and 1990s after the reform, the RMB was widely used in China. The value is still very high. It may only cost 10,000 RMB to build a primary school with basic functions. Even if 10,000 primary schools are built, taking into account future inflation, it may only cost several hundred million or more than a billion.
Of course, taking into account various administrative expenses, silence costs, etc., this number will be much larger than theoretically, but Chen Zhiwen is fully confident that this will not be a problem for him, not to mention that it may span one or two In ten years, there will not be much demand every year. You must know that if the direction is correct, any investment now can easily earn billions or even more in the future.
This grand plan for the mainland is even more meaningful than a few Central buildings.
"I admire Chen Sheng's mind. I can't match it." Bei Jinming sighed.
"Don't dare." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. This is not considered pure charity. He still hopes to continue this charity project to increase his fame and satisfy his selfish desire to be remembered in history.
"Is there anything I can help with?" Bei Jinming suddenly became interested when he heard about such a grand charity project. He originally thought that he could get a big client by coming to Hong Kong, but now it seems that he can do this kind of charity at this level. It is more meaningful to make your own contribution to the project.
"Each school can make different changes in the structural appearance according to its own area and environment, but what I hope is to make it a unified style. In terms of aesthetics, I don't pursue beauty, just average, not bad, so that people can understand it at a glance. Remember, when you see this in the future, you will think of it as Zhiwen Primary School." Chen Zhiwen gave a rough description. He is not a professional in architecture, and many times he may not be clear about his requirements.
"I understand what you mean. How about this? Let me draw a few design drawings and then we can discuss it?" Bei Jinming said.
(End of chapter)
