Sneaking into the South Sea Hotel at Port Shekou in the middle of the night felt like being thieves.
Gong Yang’s heart was pounding – working with Liu Yong wasn’t a loss at all. Though he’d lost the benefits of stable employment, what classmate of his could match these opportunities?
Designing renovations for a five-star hotel – what fresh graduates could get such a chance?
In state-owned enterprises, everything depended on seniority. Who knew how many years it would take before getting such projects?
Late at night, Xia Xiaolan and Gong Yang circled the South Sea Hotel with flashlights. Of course, there were security guards on duty. Liu Yong brought two bottles of wine and roasted goose, chatting with the guards:
“One’s my niece, the other’s her classmate. They’re both students – don’t know what assignment their teacher gave them, wanting to see the construction site. What’s there to see?”
Indeed, there wasn’t much to see.
In the darkness, even the remaining steel bars had been cleared away. The construction site was devoid of debris, just waiting for renovation. There was nothing for Xia Xiaolan and Gong Yang to steal.
The security team was there to prevent vandalism and stop people from turning it into living quarters, especially with so many temporary workers in Pengcheng. In May, people could sleep anywhere with just a blanket.
When Xia Xiaolan and Gong Yang came out, Liu Yong was half-drunk, the wine and goose finished, already acting like brothers with the security team.
The guards complained to Liu Yong:
“Those Hong Kong people are the hardest to please. The building’s finished but sitting empty – what a waste of money! Every few days someone comes, claiming to be from renovation companies, each more arrogant than the last, and we have to escort them around!”
Liu Yong’s mind stirred – the Hong Kong companies were anxious too.
Back at their lodging, Liu Yong put together a portfolio. Since renovating Kang Wei’s house, he’d insisted on taking photos after completion. Initially hiring photographers, later buying his camera – he learned quickly and could take decent photos himself.
Liu Yong had categorized the renovations:
Hotel renovations, residential renovations, store renovations, office renovations.
These were further divided into luxury and basic renovations. Clients could look at these real cases and imagine the final results based on their budgets.
Xia Xiaolan wanted to give her uncle a thumbs up. Creating a portfolio was her idea, but such detailed categorization was Liu Yong’s thinking.
It showed how seriously he took the business.
After staying up most of the night, Xia Xiaolan and Gong Yang exchanged ideas. Gong Yang drew two renderings overnight. All three felt confident before finally going to sleep.
The next morning, Xia Xiaolan was yawning.
Bai Zhenzhu came to pick her up, “What were you doing last night?”
“Don’t ask – spent half the night sneaking around like thieves. We need to hurry back and forth; we have lunch with someone.”
Hearing this, Bai Zhenzhu didn’t ask further.
Mayor Tang was too distant from Bai Zhenzhu – her friendship was with Xia Xiaolan, not the mayor.
Little Wang parked across the street, waving to Xia Xiaolan.
Xia Xiaolan brightened immediately: “Brother Wang, why are you here!”
“Aren’t you going to customs to pick a car? The leader asked me to come along and look.”
Xia Xiaolan hadn’t mentioned car shopping and Liu Fen was still in Yangcheng with no chance to mention it – probably Grandmother Yu’s doing. Xia Xiaolan felt Grandmother Yu contacted Mayor Tang too frequently; that old lady had her ideas.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t make a fuss, pulling Bai Zhenzhu into the car.
Her handbag contained 100,000 in cash.
This was Xia Xiaolan’s second visit to customs. The first time was with Kang Wei when Zhou Cheng wanted to gift her a car for her birthday. Back then, Xia Xiaolan felt it was too flashy and didn’t want to spend Zhou Cheng’s money, so she refused. This second visit felt different.
Last summer, spending tens of thousands on a car would have pained her.
Now her financial situation was different. Spending tens of thousands wouldn’t affect her business plans, and a car would be useful, so why not buy one?
Smuggled cars confiscated by customs were sold at low prices.
In the 80s, some people got rich dealing in these items. Customs had cars, TVs, and other scarce goods. Getting them depended on one’s abilities. The difference between being able to buy and how much you paid could be substantial.
Coming with Little Wang was better than trying her luck alone.
At the same parking lot, Little Wang whispered with someone for a while. The reception person smiled broadly:
“Miss Xia, will the car mainly be driven by a lady?”
Xia Xiaolan nodded, “Are there others?”
There were expensive and cheap cars.
Smuggled cars thrived because annual import quotas were too low, tariffs too high, and private individuals couldn’t qualify to buy imported cars. With no legal way to get imported cars, the smuggled car market naturally flourished.
Xia Xiaolan’s car would need to be registered under someone else’s name.
Cars averaging 3-4,000 USD faced import taxes exceeding 200%. With the official USD to Yuan exchange rate around 1:3, a $4,000 car’s import cost exceeded 40,000 Yuan. Market prices were two to three times that base cost, or even more depending on the model’s popularity… Hence imported cars’ prices remained high.
Some suggested increasing import quotas to eliminate smuggled cars.
But in 1985, China’s foreign exchange reserves were under 3 billion USD, with many competing needs – spending it all on car imports was impossible!
As Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts wandered, the customs official misinterpreted her dissatisfaction, nodding repeatedly at her question:
“There are others, Miss Xia, please follow me.”
Xia Xiaolan saw several Citroëns.
The Citroën CX20 occasionally appeared on Beijing streets – 100 of them served as Beijing taxis, introduced two years ago. Compared to current boxy models, the CX20 was exceptionally beautiful, perfect for a lady to drive… though it wasn’t initially in Xia Xiaolan’s consideration.
“Even Citroëns are available.”
Xia Xiaolan was genuinely surprised – these cars were rare in China, much less common than Crowns or Bluebirds.
Some smuggled cars seized by customs had right-hand drive, but French cars had left-hand drive, perfectly matching Chinese driving habits and traffic laws. Xia Xiaolan personally liked this car – red was too eye-catching, but the milk-white five-door hatchback, if reasonably priced, would be her choice.
Unlike the Jeep 212 priced at around 40,000, the CX20’s cost was much higher. Even after customs seizure resale, it was in the Crown’s class. A Crown cost 200-300,000 Yuan – Xia Xiaolan hoped customs wouldn’t be too greedy with pricing.
Little Wang repeatedly confirmed: “This is the one?”
Xia Xiaolan nodded, “If the price is right, this is it!”