Chapter 20 Chapter 1: The Myth of Road Stalls

Those journalists and writers who like to brag will find that it is much more difficult to deal with people in Changshu than in other places.The reason is that even if a Changshu person gets 100 points, he will not want you to say 90 or 95. He will tell you in a serious and orderly manner: You can only say 80 at most. Of course, not saying it is the best—— He also left such words. But about the myth of "China Clothing City", Changshu people can't hide it.At least for me. Clothing City is a window for Changshu people to enter the market economy, and it is also a microcosm of "Changshu Model" (or "Changshu Spirit").

One of the long shots: I don’t know the city within the city-everyone who does business, especially the clothing business, does not know Changshu Clothing City. It is said that 3 out of 10 Chinese people's clothes come from the shopping mall in Changshu.It can be seen that this market is powerful!You can also see Chinese "Changshu clothing" in shopping malls in Hong Kong, Paris, and Moscow.It is not surprising that Chinese people wear Changshu clothing but do not know that most of them live in Changshu clothing city.Just like people in Beijing, including the central leaders, say that the clothes of "Hongdu" are great, but they don't know that the chief master of "Hongdu" is from Changshu. Nowadays, there are too many things that have been changed, and no one can figure out what's going on.In fact, there is not much need to figure it out.Because the clothes on the Changshu market originally come from all over the world.Today's world is a fluid life. Big stars like Bailey and Tyson don't even care about the seeds they "sow", let alone the commodities in circulation.

Changshu people never care about this, because they are very confident: as long as the clothing market in China and the world is booming, no matter how "Changshu clothing" changes its appearance or flows to Africa or America, its lineage will still be "Changshu".With this, Changshu people sitting at the forefront will always be able to describe beautiful poems according to their own will. Like many men, my greatest fear in life is going to the mall.Every time my wife took me to the mall in high spirits, when she came back, she would be so angry that she wanted to trample me to the bottom of the street.But I know that there are two major shopping malls in Beijing, Wangfujing and Xidan, and they are probably one of the best in China.Nine times out of ten, Beijingers and people who come to Beijing from other places have visited these two shopping malls-they indeed represent the largest shopping places and their standards in the capital and China.Every time I walk into these two big shopping malls, I can't help complaining that there are too many Chinese people, so many people have to be dizzy to build a shopping mall.Even so, the Wangfujing and Xidan shopping malls have always been feared Hongsha branded in my heart.

But after arriving in Changshu, my fear of Wangfujing and Xidan shopping malls disappeared.This is because you must be a little unbelievable that there are several large commercial buildings in Changshu China Merchants City that are comparable to the "Hongsha" in my heart!Believe it or not, I walked in anyway. The building in front of me is called "Wanli Commercial Building", which probably means a book of Wanli.In order to prove its magnificence, I had to put aside my fear of visiting shopping malls for a while, and went from the first floor to the fourth floor, from the east end to the west end, and then from the south to the north... When I came out of the commercial building , It is almost enough to recognize the southeast and northwest.

"Is it bigger or smaller than your Xidan shopping mall in Beijing?" The "security guard" at the door came over and asked with a smile. I shook my head and said I was confused. The "security guard" saw that I was dripping with sweat, and said, "You don't need to measure it, it must be bigger than Xidan shopping mall." "How do you know?" I was a little dissatisfied. "I served as a soldier in Beijing, and I often go to the Xidan shopping mall. It is also four floors, but the total area is smaller than our 'Wanli'."

"How much floor area does this building have?" "78,000 square meters, covering an area of ​​nearly 43 acres. A total of 3,000 stores can be arranged." I don't have much idea of ​​numbers and I can't make a comparison, but facing such a magnificent building and the feeling of "inspection" just now, I believe that what the "security guard" said is basically correct. "How many commercial buildings like this are there in the Garment City?" "The old shopping mall and the new commercial building add up to 26 or 27. You can ask our cadres." After the "security guard" finished speaking, he pointed out to me proudly, "Look, there is a shoe and hat city over there. Next to it are the 'Guomao Commercial Building', 'Changjiang Commercial Building', and there are 'Jinggu Commercial Building', 'Transportation Commercial Building'... To the east, there are several 'Huasheng' clothing markets, 'Yongfeng' woolen sweater markets, etc. one!"

"Are they all like 'Xiao Xidan'?" "That's not true. But some are really bigger than 'Xidan'." The "security guard" asked, "Have you been to the 'Wangfujing' in our Changshu Garment City?" I smiled at him, wondering if people in Changshu are too good at it?But when I stepped into the boundless central business district of the clothing city they called "Wangfujing", I really thought that Changshu people should really be awesome, because they are qualified to be awesome, and there is no reason to be awesome! The so-called "Wangfujing" is actually the largest and busiest shopping mall in Changshu Garment City - "Zhao Shopping Mall", which is also the most primitive area that forms the entire Garment City -

This is a real mall.No, it should be called the Great Wall exactly—the Great Wall of clothing!If you start from the first booth, you are determined to walk along the neat and orderly rows of clothes of various styles, grades, origins, designs, and colors hanging from the floor to the ceiling. It will take at least an hour or so to get to the last store.When I was in the army, I practiced using standard pace plus time to calculate distance.So I started to do something that Changshu people may not have done themselves, measuring the "zhaomao" (Changshu's official term for "Wangfujing")... As a result, it took me 55 minutes.The examiner tested me at a normal walking speed of 6.7 kilometers per hour.In this way, this shopping mall is really a "ten-mile-long stall-the Great Wall of Clothing"!

This number is undoubtedly a surprise to outsiders, and I think it may also be an inspiration and excitement to Changshu people. It really deserves the excitement and excitement of Changshu people.Because the area of ​​the shopping mall I mentioned is less than one-tenth of the entire Changshu Garment City.From this, you can think about how magnificent and magnificent the entire Changshu clothing city and business city should be—and there are several large and magnificent buildings in a county-level city like "Wangfujing" and "Xidan" in Beijing's big cities. The shopping mall itself shows that Changshu Commercial Market has extraordinary significance! (This phenomenon has already attracted the attention of the famous sociologist Fei Xiaotong and the Rural Policy Research Office of the State Council, and I am a newcomer to the intervention of literature—but I still feel that when dealing with new issues such as the socialist market economy, writers Much more outdated than sociologists.)

I know from history books that Changshu was first built in the Gouwu era at the end of the Shang Dynasty.At that time, in order to resist the foreign enemies entering from the Yangtze River, the King of Wu set up a military station and a lookout post in Yushan (the west of Changshu City, which is now a part of the urban area).In order to provide accommodation for the soldiers, the King of Wu ordered several huts to be built on the east side of the mountain. This was the initial formation of Changshu City.The development of the ancient city of Changshu was slower than the crawling of ants.In the Sui Dynasty 1,000 years later, Changshu City was still only a small fortress-style city with "240 steps around the city, with bamboo and wood fences"... However, in the next 1,000 years, Changshu City was awarded the title of It developed greatly and became a famous city in the south of the Yangtze River in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

However, the ancient city of Changshu 3,000 years ago is really insignificant compared to Changshu New Town and another "city within a city" that emerged in Changshu New City - China Garment City. The following set of numbers allows us to make the simplest comparison: in the 1,000 years from the "240 steps around the city" in the Sui Dynasty to 1950, the area of ​​Changshu City expanded to 3 square kilometers; The area of ​​Changshu City has expanded to 8.25 square kilometers; from 1985 to today, in just over 20 years, Changshu City has expanded to more than 30 square kilometers.Among them, the "China Clothing City", which is called "the city within the city" by Changshu people, accounts for a certain proportion. Changshu people have invested 3 billion yuan in the construction of "China Garment City" in 10 years.The local city construction fee is about one-tenth of that of Beijing. That is to say, in such a short period of time, Changshu people spent more than 30 billion RMB to build a brand new market. The significance of the clothing city lies. However, the significance of Changshu's "China Clothing City" is far from this.Its real significance lies in: ——it is not a national key project, and it has not been invested by the state, but it is all built by farmers with their own hands and wisdom—— It is not a "golden model" cast under the existing framework, but a product of market economy that is rolled out from road stalls. A giant market like a city! A market with 100,000 or 200,000 visitors every day! A market with an annual turnover of 20 billion! This is a miracle made by Changshu people! This is the tide of Changshu farmers surging in the ocean of market economy! Long shot 2: This is how the snowball rolls out Everyone in Changshu knows that the Garment City, which now covers an area of ​​3.7 square kilometers, was not what it is now. What was it like then? At that time, there was no such thing, and everyone in Changshu answered me like this. How did such a large market develop? do you know?have no idea.how about you?have no idea.Most people in Changshu answered me like this. It seems that I woke up overnight. The smiles on the faces of the villagers when they talked about this incident always reveal a kind of glorious naivety, which is actually a kind of pride and clever cunning.But for me and all outsiders, how the Changshu market developed is always a topic of interest. Tell me--I found the first batch of small traders who entered the market, Mr. Shen. Shen is now a boss with several million dollars, but he still likes others to call him a "hawker" self-effacingly. "We can make several millionaires with one pole in Changshu Garment City. I don't think it's a lake tide." (Changshu dialect, that is, it's nothing) He answered my question so simply, saying that he has always been farming. of.One year, my son brought back some acrylic clothes from the factory in their township, saying that the ex-factory price was only two or three yuan a piece, and they could be sold for about 10 yuan in other places.After hearing this, I was moved and asked him to buy a few more pieces from the factory in order to find time to sell them.Where to sell it?I first thought of Changshu City South Gate Bus Station.Because there are many people there and there are many foreigners.So I went there at noon and after work to try to sell. As a result, I sold about 10 pieces in a day or two, earning about 50 yuan.Thinking about it, isn't this equivalent to doing farm work for more than a month!value.Since then, I have been putting an old newspaper on the side of the road at the entrance of the bus station, putting some clothes on and setting up a small stall.Later, someone saw that my small business was quite affordable, so they followed suit.There were too many stalls on the side of the road and it was a bit chaotic, so we were gathered together.At first, everyone was not happy, because it was more than 100 meters away from the station, and it was not easy for shoppers to go there.The person in charge of the market said that there would be people coming. After a while, the customers really came here, and more and more. In the first year of entering the market, I only had 4 or so months, and I made more than 10,000 yuan. .It doubled in the second year.In the third year, it quadrupled again... After that, the money came in like a tide, and it couldn't be pushed away.I looked back at the stalls on the left, right, front, back, and the store. I don’t know when there were three floors inside and three floors outside.Then there are many big and big shopping malls, which have sprung up from the ground like bamboo shoots, so that I have not moved in the stalls for a few days now, and I am a little ignorant of the clothing city! I brought Lao Cai here again.Because someone told me that Lao Cai was one of the earliest proponents of the establishment of the first farmers' market in China.He himself told me that he was also the first "industry and commerce" and the first market business licensee in Changshu Garment City Commercial City.After reading his business card, I added a "first" to him: the first president of the self-employed workers' association in Changshu's "China Garment City" (this is his current position). Lao Cai, whose full name is Cai Xiaoxing, is 53 years old and worked as an accountant, team leader, and secretary of the production team.He stepped down from the post of "Mudleg Secretary" because the township diversified business service company (referred to as "multiservice company") at that time needed someone to manage those sloppy things that appeared on the road in front of the bus station within the jurisdiction of the township. stall people.Lao Cai’s task at the time was to take a small notebook along the road one by one every day to keep the stalls out of the way in the middle of the road, and charge 30 cents or 50 cents per stall for the “Duofu Company” as a management fee. The road market at the entrance of the bus station started with dozens of hawkers.By 1983 there were a hundred or so. In 1984, there were over four hundred and dozens of hawkers.There are so many peddlers blocking the entrance of the station every day, yelling and occupying the road, Lao Cai is almost exhausted.It doesn't matter if you are alone or tired, the terrible thing is that Lao Cai is still running around all day long.Some departments said that he was "indulging the tail of capitalism to disrupt the road of socialism"; small businessmen and peddlers called him a "vampire" who only knew how to collect money without giving green light.Lao Cai, who is a ghost inside and outside, had no choice but to complain to his boss with a cloud of resentment, saying that if he didn't think about it, he would never know how many people would be killed by a car one day, and your manager and I would have to be dismissed... "So what do you think?" the manager asked. "Get a piece of land next to the station to gather the hawkers together," Lao Cai said. The manager said to himself: "This is good, but I don't know if it will work." "Why not? People's newspapers have introduced that this is called running a market." Lao Cai insisted, and turned out a "People's Daily" to ask the manager to read. "Then try reporting to the higher authorities." The manager finally let go. The "report" was submitted to the municipal government under the joint name of Lao Cai's "multi-service company" and Hujing Village.I don't want the municipal government to quickly approve their proposal to build the "Changshu City Recruitment Shopping Center". When Lao Cai took the "reply" from the city and received the business license of the shopping mall, he was really ecstatic, but when he took the "license" to invite one of his "old business" friends in the city, he went out of the city. When I was helping to be a market manager, I was stumped: "Call me? You can figure it out! You country people also run a market? Don't worry, brother, I won't go anyway." "Old businessman" like this answer him. (Later, however, Lao Cai dragged the "old businessman" to his street market in the countryside with a stern face, and the two of them worked together for a long time). "Is the market in your mind the same as Changshu's 'China Clothing City' today?" I asked Lao Cai. Lao Cai shook his head and said: "Where is it? To be honest, we proposed to build the market at that time not so much for economic development, but more for the purpose of cleaning up the dirty, chaotic, and poor in front of the station. The formation of the clothing city It was completely the market effect brought out by the market itself, which no one thought of.” Indeed, the development of Changshu Garment City to its present scale is beyond the imagination of Changshu people.However, there is indeed a Changshu person who thought of it.He is Gu Bangjun, the founder and chief hero of Garment City, who is called "the strange man of Chinese peasant economy" by an American economist. Tall, with a stiff body, he walks vigorously and valiantly - this is the first impression after seeing him. People in their 60s don't show it at all.And his big piercing eyes and charming demeanor make it even more difficult for people to equate him with a farmer.However, his shrewdness, wisdom, straightforwardness and simplicity are typical Chinese peasant characters. Gu Bangjun's legendary stories can be picked up with one pole and two baskets; and he is also willing to be praised by others as a patent obtained from "One Hundred Universities". "One hundred universities? Is there such a university in China?" The American reporter widened his eyes. "Yes! One shoulder pole, two dung buckets, isn't this 100? I am a farmer with a background in picking dung, and I learned knowledge in practice. 900 million of China's 1 billion people graduated from this 'university' like me. Come out." He told foreigners in such a humorous way. After the city government’s “reply” on building a market next to the station came down, Xia Zuxing, the party secretary of Qinnan Township at the time, called Gu Bangjun, a “capable man” who ran an enterprise in the township. "What are you talking about?" "I want to know what to do, why move you out of the mountain?" Secretary Xia answered simply.That's what Gu Bangjun wants - if you want me to do it, you have to dare to let go. But letting go doesn't mean things will be easy.No money for money, no land for land. "Lao Gu, don't you want money? Yes. But we have to take a lot of money to run the mall." "Doesn't Boss Gu want land? Yes. But after the mall is established, we have to deal with one or two hundred migrant workers." I don't know where the market is yet, but the left side needs to "get the big head", and the right side needs to deal with so many migrant workers... Gu Bangjun arched his hands and said, thank you everyone, the solution is still on my own. Before this, Gu Bangjun was a well-known capable person.If someone can beat him at the beginning, then Gu Bangjun is not a capable person. The land was settled quickly, and 10 mu of cultivated land was set aside in Hujing Village, 100 meters away from the station.The village party secretary's condition is: "Boss Gu only allows you to succeed, and the villagers are tightening their belts now to wait until tomorrow to eat you." The money has also been settled: a total of 600,000 yuan in loans and loans. After getting the money and land, Gu Bangjun began to use his big pen to build a big market.He opened up his grand blueprint at the township cadre meeting: within three years, this market will reach the largest in southern Jiangsu with "covering an area of ​​100 acres, 1,000 stalls, millions of profits, and an annual turnover of 100 million."Lao Gu said such a thing more than 10 years ago, which can be regarded as a boast in the business world. "Hahaha, Lao Gu! Lao Gu, this time he only cares about boasting about himself." Others laughed at him like this, but it didn't shake Gu Bangjun's long-term plan. Since this market may be the hope of Changshu tomorrow, it must have a good name.What's the name?The market The market is to welcome customers and businessmen, so - let's call it "welcoming market"! After the name "Welcome" was finished, Lao Gu felt that this name was not enough, but he couldn't think of anything better than this.Old Wei, secretary of the city's finance and trade, was known as "Changshu talented man", so Gu Bangjun came to ask for advice. After hearing this, Lao Wei thought for a while and said, "There is a China Merchants Bureau in Hong Kong, and a Quanyechang in Tianjin. They were not very big at first, but they became very famous later on. Our Changshu has outstanding people since ancient times, and we have done many earth-shattering things. Now we do The market is loud and loud. Lao Gu, how about we name it 'Changshu Zhaomall'?" "Okay, this name is good, it's great!" Gu Bangjun said three good things in a row, and he liked this name from the bottom of his heart. As the saying goes, "everything is difficult at the beginning", but running a business market is also difficult at the beginning. Not to mention how uncomfortable the peddlers and shoppers were made by the crude steel sheds and cement slab stalls in the original Changshu Garment City, the fence that had to be built just to regulate the surrounding environment, Lao Gu suffered a lot. It's enough for several tables.At that time, the villagers did not recognize or understand what benefits the market would bring to them. They, whose ancestors had lived here for generations, saw that the land was taken by others, as if their jobs had been smashed by others, and they angrily threw that land away again and again. The wall fell down... "Compensation! Compensation for our losses!" Seeing Gu Bangjun coming, their emotions became even more excited. "Isn't the township paying land occupation fees to every household?" "But you didn't pay for the green crops and green wheat all over the ground!" Old Gu Meizhe clapped his hands and said that I can't afford to satisfy everyone now, but please believe that once the market is opened, the villagers around you will definitely benefit. "Stop sugar balloons. Besides, who doesn't know that you are a big boss now, give us money!" Lao Gu took out the bottoms of his two pockets and showed them to the villagers: "If I have money, I will give it to everyone, but I am really poor." "Bang!" Another section of the wall was knocked down.When Lao Gu got out of the dust, he found that his fairly new bicycle had been smashed with a broken leg and a chain, so he could only smile helplessly.Later, the Hujing Village Committee helped out 30,000 yuan to settle the "green crop compensation incident". Things are not over.It turned out that several toilets at the intersection were removed because the construction of the market was in the way. The villagers united and threatened to exchange the removed toilets by digging up Gu Bangjun's ancestral grave.Everyone knows how important and valuable farm manure is to farmers. Some people say that a toilet in Hushikou is a "cash cow", and the toilet next to the station where traffic is coming and going is a "small bank" "Yet? "Compensation! Compensation! As long as the market is built, my skin will be stripped and I will be compensated!" Gu Bangjun never imagined that he wanted to build a "cornucopia" for the peasant brothers in his heart, but he was so misunderstood.Boss Gu, who was regarded as "very rich" by the villagers, lost money in the end, so he and his colleagues had to use the money from selling their pigs to fill in the last brick for building the market.But what worries him even more is yet to come. On May 10, 1985, a "Changshu Zhaomall" with an area of ​​nearly 12 acres and 2,200 stalls was officially listed for business in only 80 days of infrastructure construction.That day, Lao Gu—against the lively scene where he invited leaders and sang operas in the past, he led his subordinates to sit quietly at the gate the next morning.Someone joked and said, "You Gu Bangjun used to do things to save face, why are you so stingy when you open the 'Changshu No. 1 City' this time?" Lao Gu wiped his mouth, sullenly, and said seriously: "Because this is the largest market in Changshu's thousands of years of history, and it was opened by us farmers, I can't care about saving face for the time being. This time I What I want is 'Jia Li'". Ha, he wants to "clip"?Then we won't give him any face! On this day, when the sun was setting, Lao Gu and the others in the spacious shopping mall did not wait for a hawker, nor did they see a customer enter the market.The bird's nest was built but no birds came in. Gu Bangjun was really anxious this time, and the hairs grew in his heart. "No, even if we hurry, we must drive them in!" He ordered. On the second day, the whole team of Zhaomao Shopping Mall dispatched to the road and chased the hawkers into the market like chickens. No one went in.In the afternoon, Lao Gu invited the traffic police, which really worked.Unexpectedly, the police drove people in at the front, and then they all slipped behind their buttocks in a blink of an eye... Still the same on the third day. "50 cents! 30 cents... My old Gu doesn't charge a cent for the booth fee, can you still enter?" Seeing the empty shopping mall, Gu Bangjun stood on the main road and wanted to kneel down to beg the vendors, but no one Take his love. "Hahaha, Lao Gu! Lao Gu, most of the hawkers on the road at the station are local farmers. They don't know business at first, and their ancestors were farmers. Naturally, no one listened to you. Don’t worry, I will help you invite them into the market tomorrow, how about it?” Meng Jinyuan, secretary of the municipal party committee at the time, had a good time listening to Gu Bangjun’s report.Afterwards he made a guarantee like this. The next day, Secretary Meng really brought a group of people to the recruitment mall early, and he held an on-site office meeting for half a day.In the afternoon, Gu Bangjun and the others took a look inside the market, and they were overjoyed. The hawkers were all inside, and the customers who bought things also followed in in twos and threes!Looking back at the "road market" in front of the station that has been chaotic for several years, it has disappeared... The market economy is really like a Rubik's cube, if you don't touch its door, it will let you go nowhere, but once it starts benign, there will be a world in front of you every day.And the benefits generated by this market are also snowballing.Gu Bangjun, the hero of Changshu's "China Garment City" who has now retired to the second-tier, told me that in the year (only 4 months) when he was the general manager, the shopping malls realized profits and taxes of 520,000 yuan, and the merchandise turnover reached 60 million yuan. .By the end of 1987, his dream of developing the Changshu market into "the best in southern Jiangsu" with an annual turnover of 100 million yuan was realized ahead of schedule.In the following 8 years, the "snowball" in Changshu market has grown a full 100 times, and it has been so big that the Chinese and even people outside China are amazed by it! I asked Lao Gu whether he would have imagined that the Changshu market would develop into what it is today 10 years ago when he started his business?He said he thought about it, but the speed was unexpected.The development process of the Changshu market from "street stalls" - recruiting shopping malls - China Garment City has experienced the trajectory of a market economy transitioning from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom, which is in line with Marx's theory of capital economics. "Have you read Marx's Capital?" "I've seen it." Lao Gu didn't take my surprise seriously. He said that he once bought a set of "Encyclopedia of China" for 3,500 yuan. Can such Chinese farmers create miracles on earth? ! Long shot 3: Create the store with the highest gold content - anyone who plays stocks in the capital knows that there is a stock exchange opposite Beijing Normal University, which is very lively. Four years ago, its predecessor, the Beijing Leather Shoe Factory, spent a lot of money to renovate the factory into a shopping mall because it could no longer survive. Affected by overwhelming advertisements, I personally took my younger sister who had just started the clothing business to rent a booth. The monthly rent was 1,000 yuan, but in less than a month, we retreated together with all the merchants, because the business we did was not enough to pay the rent.This shopping mall, which has been bustling for three days, finally changed its appearance due to its defeat to the depression. Same example.A few years ago, people in Nanjing were lured by the prosperity of the Changshu market, so they followed suit and built a huge clothing shopping mall in Pukou next to the Yangtze River Bridge. Changshu people's purse, its publicity offensive can be said to be home.Their staff took the investment advertisements that "the rent of stalls and stores are 50% to 70% lower than that of Changshu Zhaomall" and gave them to the bosses in Changshu Zhaomall one by one.It is said that Changshu merchants were taken away by thousands of households by Nanjing Pukou at that time. "It's over, this time Changshu's shopping mall will be crushed by Pukou!" This kind of worry was not only felt by outsiders, but also by Changshu people themselves.After all, Pukou is in the provincial capital, and it also occupies the golden location of the Yangtze River and the advantages of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway.However, in less than three months, the Pukou clothing shopping mall had to close down due to the failure of investment invitation. Thousands of stall owners from the original Changshu clothing shopping mall who had paid the rent for stalls and stores in Pukou not only returned to Changshu, but also brought back from there. Acquired hundreds of new customers... "The base price of store A is 300,000 yuan, who wants the price?" "I need to." "I need to……" "I bid 650,000. I want it." "700,000, I'll pay 700,000!" "I offer 800,000!" "I pay 900,000"! "Okay, who else bids? Quick—!" "I, I offer 950,000—!" "It's an astronomical figure! Is there any other boss who bid? Is there any? No more? OK, the transaction of 950,000 yuan in store A!" "Bang!" With the sound of the hammer in the hands of the auctioneer, the prices of stores and booths marking Changshu China Merchants City hit the highest in the country. The rental fee for a counter of more than ten square meters in the shopping mall is as high as 950,000 yuan, which is inconceivable for ordinary people, and it is also a burning matter for business tycoons who have traveled far and wide.As far as I know, among the large shopping malls in China, the most expensive ones are the "100" in Shanghai and the "Guomao" in Beijing, and the annual rent of a counter of more than ten square meters in these two commercial buildings is generally less than More than 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.Another comparison is that the most expensive street stores in China are Wangfujing in Beijing and Nanjing Road in Shanghai.However, the maximum annual rent for the same area of ​​stores in these two prime locations is only around 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.That is to say, the gold content of stores in Changshu Garment City is truly the highest in the country. With this unbelievable admiration, I insisted on visiting the store with the highest gold content in the country.It is about one stop from the guest house where I interviewed to the store to the store, which gave me time to make such a calculation: a piece of renminbi with a large denomination of 100 yuan is 16 cm long and 7.6 cm wide, and each sheet has an area of ​​123.2 square centimeters.If the area of ​​the store is 18 square meters, then the annual rent of 950,000 yuan is equivalent to using 100 yuan in large denominations of RMB to pave 6.6 floors thick on the floor of this store!This means that a small area as large as 100 yuan will cost 660 yuan a year to rent it out! Tsk tsk—my Changshu market, you are really worth every penny!No, it should be every inch of land!Is not it?If a person is not trying to earn three to five times the profit from a palm-sized place rented for 660 yuan, then this guy must have a problem with his nerves. After such a calculation, I couldn't help but take a look at my feet, and I said to them in my heart, your brother came to Changshu today and got all the "gold".When I said this, my feet trembled a little. It said that it had never stepped on a land with such high gold content as Changshu.I said let's suppress our high-pitched emotions together.But I still found it to be much faster than usual. However, when I actually arrived at the store, I was somewhat disappointed, because I saw that the store with a size of 17 or 18 square meters was nothing special, except that it was in the most prosperous part of the shopping mall, it was not conspicuous.I haven't seen the surging flow of shoppers like in front of the counters of "100" in Shanghai or "Guomao" in Beijing.It is said that there are about 10 effective buyers per hour at the counters like "One Hundred" in Shanghai and "Guomao" in Beijing.But I watched coldly for an hour in front of the counter of the store with the highest price tag in Changshu Clothing City, and saw only seven or eight people who came to discuss business and direct shoppers.At this point, I couldn't help but worry about the counter owner who had paid "out of money", so I went in and chatted with him: "I heard that your business doesn't seem to be booming after paying so much rent?" He was stunned for a while and said: "Why do you Do you know that my business is not good?" I said, "There aren't many clients that I've seen you come to for an hour or so." He probably saw that I was an outsider, so he happily said to me, "It's the off-season now. There are fewer people. But it’s this season, do you know how many deals I’ve negotiated just now?” I said, “All count the people who entered your store just now, that’s seven or eight people.” The boss smiled. Said: "That's why, our business in Changshu Garment City is mainly wholesale, and retail is not considered at all. Didn't you just see that there are seven or eight people here? To tell you the truth, five of them bought I left 7 pieces of clothing, 3 of which came to order from me. Do you know how many pieces of clothing you ordered from me?” I shook my head and said I couldn’t guess. "I ordered a total of 2,400 pieces!" The boss laughed loudly after finishing speaking, and said: "Our value here is worth 1 customer in our store, and 10, 100 or even 1,000 buyers in Beijing and Shanghai shopping malls! Our retail here in Changshu is not at all accounted for. Why do I have to pay such a high rent to take down this store? It is to take advantage of the prosperous location where it has many customers and do big business. If there are 10 or so customers a day, I will You can sit back and relax." "How many customers come to you when the business is best?" I asked. The boss said: "The number of customers coming does not mean that the business is good or bad. Sometimes it is better to come to 10 merchants than to come to a large wholesaler. The accurate statement depends on which day the most batches are sold." "So how many clothes did you sell in batches on your best day?" "30,000 to 40,000 pieces have been done, and at most I can produce more than 70,000 to 80,000 pieces a day!" The boss said. "How much does each item earn?" "Not much, usually we only earn one or two dollars." "It's not much, one or two yuan for one item, and you can earn more than a hundred thousand a day!" The boss didn't take my fuss seriously, saying that there are people who earn hundreds of thousands a day. I said, "Then how can you consistently deliver 10,000 or 100,000 pieces of goods in one day?" "Do you want the goods?" The boss said to me with his eyes wide open, "If you really want the goods, let alone 120,000 or 100,000 pieces, I can transfer them to you immediately. This is our What’s so great about the high gold content in the Changshu market! You are a writer, so you can go and interview it.” Without his reminding, this is naturally a valuable material that I really want to get.However, I still wanted to inquire about his courage to pay a rent of 950,000 yuan, so I followed him up and asked him this question.Unexpectedly, the boss suddenly became nervous. "Don't tell the outside world that I rented this store for 950,000 yuan!" "What's the matter, the auction is done by the government, what are you worried about?" "You're mistaken, my store was bought from someone else. The one with a rent of 950,000 is over there." The boss showed me nervously with his finger, saying that the location of that store was even better than his. I couldn't help but suddenly realized that I had made a mistake.But I still asked: "Why didn't you go to the auction and bought one at half the price from someone else?" "You, Mr. He, don't mention it." The boss told me as if his scar had been stabbed violently by someone else, and he seemed to lose face. He just suffered from the investment promotion in Pukou.At that time, he was also instigated by others, and before he could gain a firm foothold in Changshu, he ran to Nanjing to make a fortune, but he lost 20,000 yuan in booth fees when he failed to make a fortune.When he returned to Changshu, all the good stalls and stores here were rented out by others, so he had no choice but to sell the current store from others in private. "Don't you think it's unfair to spend hundreds of thousands more for nothing?" I said. "If you say you are wronged, you are wronged, and if you say you are not wronged, you are not wronged." He quietly told me that someone was willing to sublet his store for 1.5 million, but he didn't make it. "A net profit of more than 500,000 yuan is not enough?" He shook his head again and again, saying that he could make a lot of money by shutting down the store, but if I lose this store, the loss of operating income for a year is probably a few 500,000 yuan. Do you think I can be willing to transfer this "bank" out easily? I nodded to show that I understood the account.I asked the boss, what is the actual rental price of the highest store and stall in the Changshu market? He made it clear that on the surface, the 950,000 yuan that the government publicly auctioned and rented was the highest, but in fact, the number of good booths in private transactions among businessmen reached 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, and the best stalls have been sold to more than one million yuan. up. More than one million yuan a year to rent a store of 10 to 20 square meters?I think it's too far-fetched.In order to confirm whether there is such a thing, I specifically asked some people in charge of China Merchants City, and they did not deny it. Changshu!Changshu, what makes every inch of your land produce such noble magic power?Is it the beautiful name given by your ancestors itself?Or is it due to the unique geographical advantages, or is it due to the same long history as the Chinese nation?It seems to be, it seems not to be.