Xue Zhebin was shocked by his own deduction.
His first reaction was that it seemed a bit far-fetched.
Transforming an abandoned old industrial zone into a commercial district? Was this something humans could actually accomplish?
The abandonment of old industrial zones was the result of urban development, industrial upgrading, and many other factors working together. In other cities, the best outcome for renovating old industrial zones was usually turning them into some kind of entrepreneurial park or similar facility.
With special artistic features, they might gain some fame and attract tourists, but it was impossible for them to truly become prosperous and bustling.
You couldn’t exactly point a gun at tourists to make them come, could you?
But Mr. Pei obviously thought differently. Otherwise, why would he build the roller coaster project so far from the Thriller Hostel’s original attractions?
It couldn’t be just to make tourists walk more!
That would be insane. It was definitely not possible.
Clearly, Mr. Pei was confident that once the roller coaster was built, various shops would naturally appear around it, driving the development of the entire area.
The positioning of an amusement park and a commercial street actually had some conflicts, and the two were difficult to integrate together.
For ordinary tourists, commercial streets could be visited frequently, but amusement parks definitely not;
However, amusement parks had unique advantages—special entertainment facilities that commercial streets couldn’t offer, such as large roller coasters and other amusement facilities.
But once these two things were integrated, it would be incredible!
Although the transportation in Jingzhou’s old industrial zone wasn’t as convenient as many large shopping malls located in the bustling downtown areas, its transportation conditions weren’t particularly remote either. Moreover, subway lines had already been planned.
If it had both large roller coaster projects like “Operation Skylark” and shops like restaurants, cinemas, hotels, clothing stores, and various digital product specialty stores, then for many Jingzhou locals, coming here for a weekend would be very worthwhile!
First, they could go to the roller coaster area to get a number, then depending on the waiting time, they could decide to have a cup of coffee nearby, eat a meal, go shopping, watch a movie, or simply go to an internet café to play games with friends.
Wasn’t this better than the experience at many large amusement parks?
Many large amusement parks had plenty of attractions, but many were just fillers and weren’t actually that much fun.
And even with Fast Passes, the vast majority of attractions still required queuing.
Waiting two hours for a three-minute experience, not being able to enjoy many attractions in a day, with your legs and feet aching from walking all day.
You might come on the first day, and plan to come again the second day, but end up too exhausted to move from your hotel.
This problem didn’t exist at Thriller Hostel, because during the queue time, you could shop around or browse the internet—the amusement facilities were integrated within the entire commercial district.
For out-of-town visitors, the experience was equally good. They could choose to stay in a hotel near Thriller Hostel for a weekend, experience the attractions they were interested in, and still have time to arrange their own schedules, such as watching a GPL match.
Moreover, as Thriller Hostel’s future projects increased and expanded in scale, this experience would only get better and better!
Because according to Mr. Pei’s planning, the more fun attractions Thriller Hostel had, the more shops would appear around it, naturally attracting more tourists, gradually forming a positive cycle.
Of course, this positive cycle looked wonderful in theory, but to actually achieve it would be extremely difficult.
First, there needed to be a company like Tenda that could spend big money and take huge risks to create these amusement attractions. These attractions had to be unique enough and fun enough to attract sufficient tourists.
Second, the operators of these amusement facilities had to be especially generous, with an open and inclusive attitude, allowing shops to settle in freely and fully opening up the surrounding space.
Ordinary amusement parks couldn’t achieve the first point, while super-large amusement parks couldn’t achieve the second point.
Many large amusement parks, because of their enormous investments, would definitely keep entire plots of land under their control, costing tens or hundreds of billions, with the entire construction project lasting several years or even more than a decade. They wouldn’t allow and had no need to let outside shops get involved.
But given that Tenda’s current funds hadn’t reached that scale, Mr. Pei very cleverly adopted this new model, which led to win-win cooperation with these shops and could provide tourists with a better experience!
After this analysis, Xue Zhebin became even more convinced of Mr. Pei’s brilliance.
One could say that the most admirable thing about Mr. Pei was that he never confined himself to his existing successful areas, but was always expanding into new fields, and each time he could propose a new business model.
Most amazingly, this new business model could only be played successfully by Tenda and no other company.
It was truly remarkable!
No wonder Mr. Li always followed Mr. Pei’s investments—why bother solving problems yourself when you could copy the standard answer?
Li Shi said, “If you have spare money, you can also open a shop nearby. You just need to share a cut with Tenda according to the regulations.”
“Chen Kangtuo has already gone to talk with Tenda’s other departments. Tenda’s own businesses like Slackin’ Internet Café and Slackin’ Delivery will also open branches here.”
Xue Zhebin asked, “Won’t there be others who see the business opportunity and try to freeload without paying?”
Li Shi smiled slightly, “That’s impossible. I and several investors were among the first to open shops in this area, and we all consciously follow the rules set by Mr. Pei. Would latecomers dare to cross the line? If someone really has such courage, those shops abandoned by Tenda at the food market would be a warning to them!”
“Moreover, the development of this old industrial zone needs approval from relevant departments. Do you think Tenda has more influence over the use of this land, or some unknown opportunists who appear out of nowhere?”
“Look, here come the interviewers.”
Xue Zhebin looked back and saw someone who looked like a reporter walking past the café door, interviewing tourists, with someone carrying a camera filming behind.
“As a successful project in the transformation of the old industrial zone, with such enthusiastic response from the public, television stations will definitely devote a lot of coverage to it, and future support will definitely increase.”
“It will also become increasingly smoother for Mr. Pei to build new projects on this land.”
Xue Zhebin nodded, as if seeing the entire old industrial zone regaining its vitality.
The success of Thriller Hostel before was already impressive, but now he realized that was just the beginning of Mr. Pei’s planning!
The two of them sipped coffee while silently experiencing the earth-shattering changes that Tenda had brought to Jingzhou.
Xue Zhebin took out his phone and scrolled through Weibo for a while, then suddenly said, “Hey, Mr. Li, look! Mr. Pei actually came today! And someone took a photo!”
Li Shi took the phone from Xue Zhebin, and sure enough, it was another new back view photo.
The photographer had also done a series of analyses on this back view photo, combining it with several previous “world masterpieces,” and concluded: Mr. Pei personally experienced all of Tenda’s projects before making them available to users!
This not only showed that Mr. Pei always had strict requirements for his own projects and led by example, but also that he always had customers at heart, putting consumers’ interests first.
Most importantly, Mr. Pei always did all of this quietly, safeguarding customers’ rights and interests, never using it as an excuse for promotion or marketing, but maintaining a low profile, even remaining unknown.
In these photos, Mr. Pei’s back view walking against the flow of people was the best proof!
Xue Zhebin couldn’t help but sigh, “Mr. Pei is truly a remarkable person!”
“Such a free, unrestrained, yet humble and low-profile life is truly admirable.”
“Compared to the self-made Mr. Pei, I can’t even handle taking over the business well now, which is truly shameful.”
Li Shi comforted him, “It’s alright. Be open to improvement. If you start learning from Mr. Pei now and invest more in projects related to him, you will naturally grow gradually.”
“Natural-born geniuses like Mr. Pei are extremely rare. For ordinary people like us, being able to work hard to keep up with the footsteps of a genius is already quite an achievement.”
Xue Zhebin nodded, “Good, I also plan to invest some money and open a shop nearby!”
…
…
December 31st, Monday.
Pei Qian sat in his office looking at the internet discussions about Thriller Hostel that were everywhere, completely bewildered.
What was going on?
It was fine for people to discuss how fun the “Operation Skylark” roller coaster was, but how did they start discussing “Thriller Hostel creating a new model that combines amusement parks with commercial districts”?
And this photo, who took it?!
I really didn’t think that much about it! I just simply went with Old Ma to experience the roller coaster I hadn’t tried before. Why praise me so much?
Pei Qian was almost embarrassed to death by all the praise, wishing he could dig a two-bedroom apartment with his toes.
The key was that so many people believed it, which was ridiculous!
Of course, this false reputation wasn’t the most troubling thing.
The worst part was that another large batch of shops wanted to settle in the old industrial zone, and they were all rushing to pay “protection fees.”
Pei Qian was puzzled—if you want to open shops, just open them. Why give me money?
The key was that he couldn’t refuse. The more he refused, the more uneasy these people felt, and they would only offer even higher percentages.
Pei Qian had no choice but to let Chen Kangtuo handle it.
Anyway, every penny Chen Kangtuo collected now would be repaid to him during the suffering travel later.
It was already the end of the month, and half the time of this round of suffering travel had passed.
Pei Qian thought he could start arranging the list for the third round of suffering travel, catching all those who had slipped through the net before, like Chen Kangtuo, Tian Mo, none of them would escape!