The second thousand and tenth chapter is not an empire at all
Traveling along the Xinnan River and Xinnan Canal, Feng Xinyuan took the inland river ferry and arrived at Little West Lake in the middle of the Great Lakes in a short time.
Then his boat docked at West Lake City, the largest city in the Great Lakes region and the provincial capital of the newly established Five Lakes Province.
Just by hearing the name, you can tell that it has a strong Jiangnan style.
Not only this place, but in fact the names of many overseas places in the empire have strong local characteristics.
For example, Xinnangang, this place existed as New Jiangnan from the beginning, because this place is so rich that anyone who looks at it will think it is the second Jiangnan.
At the same time, among the names of the five great lakes, the second largest lake is called Little West Lake. This name is naturally in line with the native West Lake in Jiangnan.
West Lake City is the earliest city established by the empire in the Great Lakes region. When the first batch of imperial immigrants arrived here, they established the first port city in the Great Lakes region in this excellent geographical environment.
As the number of immigrants increased, especially as the Great Lakes region gradually developed, Westlake City became the largest city in the Great Lakes region.
There are currently more than 30,000 residents in the entire city.
At first glance, these more than 30,000 people seem to be very few. In the empire itself, many ordinary state capital cities have such a large population, and some medium-sized cities have a population of more than 100,000 people.
As for large cities, they all have a population of hundreds of thousands, and there are also many very large cities with a population of over a million. The three major coastal cities of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou all have populations of over one million.
However, cities with more than 30,000 people are relatively rare in overseas areas. Even in North America, where the total population has exceeded 10 million, Xinnangang has a population of 100,000. The other so-called big cities are only
Tens of thousands of people.
And most of them are actually small towns with only a few thousand or even a few hundred people.
After all, more than 10 million people sounds like a lot, but when spread over the vast area of North America, it's not much.
What's more, there are too many areas available for development in North America, so the population is relatively evenly distributed.
This can be reflected even in a city like West Lake City.
When he first arrived in West Lake City, Feng Xinyuan's first impression was that this place was actually not that good, with few high-rise buildings. But when he left the pier in a carriage and headed all the way to the city center, he felt this place.
Huge difference from the empire's native cities.
The first impression is that it is big!
The second feeling is that there are few people!
At first, he was surprised that there were so few people in a city with more than 30,000 people after all, but this idea was soon abandoned by him.
Because the entire urban area of West Lake City covers dozens of square kilometers, and there are only more than 30,000 people in such a large urban area.
Looking at the buildings on both sides of the road, there are no high-rise buildings, and the buildings are not dense. Most of them are not commercial buildings, but ordinary residential buildings.
But Feng Xinyuan was surprised when he saw these residential buildings.
Oh my god, walking along the way, almost all the residential buildings I saw were two- or three-story buildings with huge gardens in the front and back.
If this kind of building were placed in the mainland of the empire, it would be a standard feature for the high-income middle class.
In the suburbs surrounding the center of Songjiang Prefecture, communities are basically composed of small buildings like this!
However, a single-family house like this in the suburbs of Songjiang Prefecture costs at least 5,000 Tangyuan, and even a townhouse will cost several thousand Tangyuan. Even a high-income middle-class family with two working hours wants to buy such a small house.
To buy a house, you have to save for many years and get a loan from a bank.
But here, there are all these small buildings, and they are all single-family buildings with gardens in the front and back.
What surprised him even more was that when his motorcade passed by, he happened to see a two-and-a-half-story building with a garden of at least a thousand square meters. There was a for-sale sign in front of the yard, and the listed price was only two hundred.
Eighty yuan!
"Are the houses here so cheap?" With doubts, he turned around and asked his consultant: "Lin He, are the real estate prices here so cheap?"
This Lin He is a man in his twenties, wearing professional attire. Although he is young, he is a second-generation American immigrant. He was also from Yangzhou before immigrating. He is related to the Feng family and was admitted to the Imperial College a few years ago.
After graduation, he took the imperial examination and became an official. Before that, he worked in the Ministry of Rites.
Because he was a second-generation American immigrant, familiar with American customs and customs, and had an old relationship with him, Feng Xinyuan specially asked him to be his secretary.
For a young man who has just entered the official career, it is naturally a good thing to be the secretary of a provincial governor.
This secretary position sounds somewhat similar to that of a master in the pre-Ming Dynasty, but it is not the same concept at all.
The position of master in the former Ming Dynasty was of a personal nature.
And Secretary Lin’s secretary position is a serious official position, the seventh rank!
Lin He immediately said: "Sir, this price is considered a normal price here in America, and these two hundred and eighty yuan is not cheap!"
"Our family bought a house in Xinnangang a few years ago. It was also a small single-family building, covering an area of more than 2,000 square meters, and it only cost more than 300 yuan!"
"The land here is cheap, and the main cost is the construction cost, and most of the buildings here are made of wood. The wood here is abundant and the price is cheap. The bulk of the cost is the cost of hiring labor!"
"Moreover, this kind of wooden building needs constant maintenance. Not only is the wood not durable, there are too many wild animals around here, which often damage the building. If it is not maintained regularly, it will become uninhabitable in a short time!"
"If it were a small reinforced concrete building, the price wouldn't be so cheap!"
Great, Feng Xinyuan was speechless, and he also knew that land prices in America were indeed cheap.
You must know that in order to attract immigrants, the empire gave away large tracts of land for free. As long as immigrants came, they would directly give away dozens or even hundreds of acres of land.
After the local price is free, the main cost of the construction is only the cost of the building itself. The small building just now looks exquisite, but if you look closely, you can see that most of it is made of wood. The key is that America is a
There are many forests in this place, and wood is very cheap.
It seems that there is indeed a huge difference between America and the mainland!
The land is vast and sparsely populated, the land is fertile and the resources are abundant. This is Feng Xinyuan’s intuitive feeling after arriving in America.
As we headed towards the city center, gradually, the buildings on both sides of the road became denser. We began to see dense commercial buildings and more and more people.
Pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages crowded the streets, and you could even smell the familiar smell of coal, which gave Feng Xinyuan a familiar feeling.
This is the empire!
The scene I saw on the road just now is not imperial at all!