Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Chapter 459: Expanding Logistics Business into Overseas Market (3) – Part 2

The president of the terminal called for his chauffeur, and said to him, “Take them back to their hotel in Antang City.”

“Yes, sir.”

The president then turned around and extended his hand to Gun-Ho for a handshake.

“I will see you at dinner later today.”

“Sure, I will see you then. Thank you for showing me around the terminal.”

After parting from the terminal’s president, Gun-Ho got in the car with Chan-Ho and headed back to their hotel.

In the car, Gun-Ho asked the chauffeur, “Do you know how many workers there are in this terminal?”

“As far as I know, there are about 130 workers.”

“Hmm, really?”

“By the way, sir, you speak the Chinese language very well. I thought you came from Hong Kong or Taiwan.”

The chauffeur said while looking at Gun-Ho through the rear-view mirror.

“Do you often see many visitors from Hong Kong or Taiwan around here?”

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“Not very often, but we do receive tourists from there from time to time. As to the terminal that you just visited, the government previously tried to make a partnership with a company from Hong Kong, and a business owner from Hong Kong had visited here several times.”

“I guess that didn’t work out.”

“I’m not sure what happened, but since I haven’t seen that businessman any longer, I guess you’re right; it didn’t seem to work out.”

“I wonder why they are trying so hard to find a foreign partner. It seems that they can handle the construction cost with the city’s budget.”

“They initially intended to use their city budget for the project, but they then realized that if they put the significant amount of funds into building the terminals, there wouldn’t be much left for the citizen’s welfare. That was where they postponed the terminal project until the recent construction of the highway connecting with Guiyang City. So, now it seems that they want to resume the project with foreign investment funds.”

“Do you think once the terminal is completed, the commercial stores and hotels there will sell fine?”

“Haha. I don’t know much about it, but why not? It’s a bus terminal where a lot of people are coming and going all the time.”

Gun-Ho tilted his head back and closed his eyes, and he thought it through very carefully.

‘I’m sure that they will come up with an overvalued price for that 10,000 pyung large land, and they will declare that they would use it as their investment in kind. How much money are they going to ask me to bring in? And how much would it cost to build the terminal? He said the total floor space would be 15,000 pyung. It will cost a substantial amount of money to build that large building. Maybe I should gather several investors from Korea for this project. But who would be willing to invest in a project in China these days? Also, I still doubt that they would let me make money by participating in the project. All they want is the foreign money.’

While Gun-Ho was lost in thought, the car arrived at the hotel.

“Chan-Ho, why don’t you go back to your room and take a rest until dinnertime? I will need to make a reservation for the flights to Suzhou City for our trip tomorrow. I will see you at the lobby at 6 pm.”

“Sir, will it be okay for me to take a walk on the street around the hotel before dinnertime?”

“Sure, but you will need to stay close to the hotel, okay? Before you go, stop by the hotel’s front desk and get the hotel’s business card. It can be very handy.”

“Yes, sir.”

It was six o’clock in the evening.

The president of the terminals showed up at the lobby; he was with a staff lady. Gun-Ho felt nervous when he found out that Chan-Ho hadn’t returned to the hotel yet.

“Please wait for a moment. Chan-Ho hasn’t come back to the hotel yet.”

Gun-Ho was hovering around the lobby feeling anxious while waiting for Chan-Ho. Chan-Ho finally came back to the hotel. He looked pale.

“I’m so sorry, sir. I was lost on the way to the hotel.”

“It’s good that you are here.”

“I showed the hotel’s business card to the taxi driver, and he dropped me off here.”

“How much did you pay for the taxi?”

“I don’t know. I was rushing to get to the lobby, so I just gave him 50 Yuan before running into the hotel.”

“Let’s go. We are already late.”

“I’m so sorry.”

The president of the terminals took Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho to a restaurant, called Mingche canting. A waitress, who was wearing a Chinese ethic costume, served them.

The restaurant was luxuriously decorated; there was even a pond inside it. Chan-Ho looked fascinated by the beautifully decorated interior. Gun-Ho thought that the restaurant was too fancy for a small city like Antang City. Even though they arrived a bit late, the deputy mayor and the transportation department’s director were not there yet.

“It’s good that they are not here yet. I was worried that they might be waiting for us.”

In China, many high-class restaurants served hot tea as soon as customers sat at a table. While having the tea, the deputy mayor and the director of the transportation department arrived.

All sorts of dainties started coming out, along with the Chinese liquor— Baiju.

“Did you take a tour around the terminal?”

“Yes, I did.”

“I believe that the president of the terminals already explained to you about the size of the project.”

“Yes, he did.”

The deputy mayor collected the glasses on the table and placed them in front of him, and he started filling them with Baiju, and then he distributed each glass to everyone at the table.

“Let’s welcome and toast our guests from Seoul, Korea— Mr. Gun-Ho Goo.”

“Ganbei! (cheers)”

“Ganbei!”

“Chan-Ho, enjoy the food, especially liquor. You haven’t had many chances to drink in Korea because you had to drive for me. Here, you can drink as much as you please.”

“The foods are awesome.”

Gun-Ho said while clinking his glass to the deputy mayor’s glass and the director’s glass of the transportation department, “How much investment funds do you have in mind?”

The transportation department’s director answered on behalf of the deputy mayor.

“We are thinking of 50 million dollars.”

“So each party is supposed to bring in 25 million dollars?”

“That’s correct.”

“The land, that I visited earlier today, has been appraised for 25 million dollars, hasn’t it?”

“That’s correct.”

“I believe that it is overvalued. The land is 10,000 pyung large, and if its appraised value is 25 million dollars, that means that the land is worth 2.5 million Korean won per pyung. I’ve seen that kind of high price for the land in a big city like Suzhou City or Hangzhou City where I previously had my joint venture business, but not for a small city.”

“The land price here is very high as well.”

“Guizhou Province’s capital— Guiyang City— has a population of 4.5 million, but the population of its downtown is not even 1.5 million. Likewise, even though Antang City’s population is 800,000, the population of the downtown is only 300,000. I think that you are planning to build an unnecessarily huge terminal, given the size of the city.