From the moment he received the naturalization notice, George knew that his life had changed dramatically.
A bright future was waiting for him, so he was not willing to wait for a moment, and was ready to go to the Ceuta Yamen to go through the subsequent naturalization procedures.
Of course, he did not leave directly, but said hello to the general manager of the hotel and asked for leave before leaving.
Naturally, his boss readily approved his vacation.
In fact, his boss was also happy for George's successful naturalization.
His old boss also admired George, otherwise he would not have written a recommendation letter for him.
After hearing the news at the same time, most of the others came forward to congratulate George. George naturally smiled and kept holding his hands and saying thank you to everyone for taking care of him.
After all, they have been colleagues who have worked together for many years, and George is easy to get along with and generous. He maintains a good relationship with almost all managers and even shareholders in the hotel.
If he hadn't been a better person, he wouldn't have been the only temporary resident manager in a European hotel, and there wouldn't have been so many people writing recommendations for him.
In the eyes of many people, George possessed almost all the qualities that a Tang Dynasty gentleman should have.
He is more like a Tang gentry than most Tang gentry.
This is also an important reason why he was able to successfully naturalize in the end.
When he came out of the hotel, George got directly into a taxi. The taxi was a small two-horse four-wheel carriage with a driver in the front seat and two or three passengers in the back seat. The back seat had soft seats.
The top is open, but it is usually not closed when the weather is nice.
This kind of taxi is operated by the Ceuta Taxi Company. There are more than 80 vehicles in total. The main customers are the upper class, and the worst are senior managers like George. The ordinary middle class still cannot afford this kind of taxi.
Horse-drawn carriage.
But George began to think that after naturalization was completed, he should consider buying a better house and a two-wheeled private carriage. He couldn't always take public carriages or taxis.
Ordinary people in the city, even the middle class, either walk or take public carriages when traveling. Taxi carriages are more expensive and less people take them.
Among them, the cost of public carriages is much cheaper. The Ceuta Taxi Company operates dozens of public carriages, more than half of which are rail carriages operating in the city, and the other half are trackless public carriages that travel between the suburbs and the city.
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Generally speaking, there are not many taxis and public carriages in Ceuta City, because the population of permanent residents and temporary residents in Ceuta City is not large, only 30,000 to 40,000 people so far.
That's all, there's no need for so many carriages.
In some major cities in China, the number of horse-drawn carriages is much greater.
At least hundreds of thousands of people in Songjiang Prefecture travel on these public carriages every day. From these numbers of people, we can see how huge the number of public carriages behind them is.
This is still an urban train. That is, after the light rail was laid and put into operation, the number of public carriages began to decrease. In the past, there were more public carriages.
If the subway in Songjiang Prefecture is completed and opened to traffic, the number of these public carriages will further decrease.
If the price of cars continues to drop, there are more trucks, and wealthy and middle-class families take cars, the number of taxis and private carriages will drop significantly.
Perhaps by then, the central urban areas of megacities like Songjiang Prefecture will become places suitable for human habitation.
This is not only due to the poor air quality in urban areas caused by the extensive use of coal, but also because there are a large number of carriages in cities these days, and carriages need to be pulled by horses.
A conservative estimate is that Songjiang Mansion has at least hundreds of thousands of horses, which can produce hundreds of thousands of tons of horse manure every year. Even the Tang Dynasty has always paid great attention to hygiene and formulated strict health regulations, but these many horses
The staggering amount of horse manure produced every year has inevitably become a major source of pollution in the city.
Horse manure not only stinks, but is also a breeding ground for flies, parasites and various infectious diseases. It is also very common for horses to die on the street directly from overwork. Some low-quality horse owners often die from exhaustion.
Leave it alone.
During the forty years of Xuanping, the city management office under Songjiang Prefecture cleared more than 20,000 dead horses within the entire prefecture in one year.
This also forced the management agencies of big cities such as Songjiang Prefecture to issue more stringent health regulations, and even formulated a special law: horse owners must be responsible for the health of their own horses.
If a horse urinates or defecates casually after going out, he will be severely punished. If he does not obey, he will be arrested.
It is precisely through the management of strict health regulations that there have been no large-scale outbreaks of infectious diseases such as plague in these big cities in the Tang Dynasty over the years.
However, this also comes at a price. The price is that the government has to invest a lot of money every year to maintain a large number of management and inspection personnel.
This is also the reason why many big cities have started to build track carriages, urban light rail trains and even subways.
Because these public transportation vehicles can carry more passengers without using too many horses, especially urban trains.
Although burning coal will also cause air pollution, it is better than the smell of horse manure in the entire city!
The carriages of the Tang Dynasty developed rapidly in just forty years and soon reached their peak. This was spurred by the Tang Dynasty's acquisition of the northern grasslands and the grasslands of Central Asia, and the promotion of more powerful horse-drawn policy measures, as well as the development of the industrial and commercial economy.
for the sake of.
However, after the forty years of Xuanping, the number of horse-drawn carriages in Datang began to slowly decline. This was because they were gradually replaced by urban light rail.
Maybe in a few years, the number of horse-drawn carriages will plummet.
However, that is a local situation, and in the overseas territory of Ceuta, this situation will not happen for a while.
Even though the Tang Dynasty had relaxed its restrictions on overseas territories, this restriction also had limitations. In some areas, the restrictions were looser, while in some places, the restrictions were more stringent.
Ceuta is the largest city in Europe, and it is also a city with relatively loose restrictions on entry and exit. Relatively speaking, it is subject to relatively large controls.
The most typical one is the railway. Even that poor place in South Africa has already allowed the construction of railways. Even in the Red Sea area of Northeast Africa, in order to better build canals and to connect the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, officials are all along the coast.
Construction of a short-distance railway began in the canal area.
But here in Ceuta, there is still no sign of railway construction.
There are no railways, and many other things are also restricted.
Of course, it is limited to civilian use, and the military base in Ceuta does not count.
The Ceuta military base has already had a naval maintenance plant many years ago, which is used to provide maintenance for the navy's warships and the Tang Dynasty ships traveling to Europe.
But that is a military base. Ordinary people cannot even enter. Military bases in Datang's overseas territories have always been under the jurisdiction of the military and have nothing to do with the local area.
If nothing else happens, public transportation in Ceuta will still rely on horse-drawn carriages for many years to come.
It is reasonable for George to plan to buy a private carriage.
Maybe, after buying a carriage and a house, you also need a mistress!