Chapter 69. Landmark

     This rating update gave Li Yaolin a big surprise. She interpreted all the updated details, the first of which was “40% increase in subsidies for all support projects under the 4A level”.

 

     It is known that she has obtained four buffs blessed by the Sea God:

 

     The first buff is related to the increase in the number of tourists. After the subsidy is increased, she can get 14,000 yuan of development funds for every 100 tourists!

 

     The second buff rewards wonders, and the subsidy cannot be increased according to the 40% share.

 

     The third buff is the same as the first one. After meeting the prerequisites, the available sea area will be increased from 1 hectare to 1.4 hectares.

 

     As for the fourth buff reward just obtained, it is “Landmark”, the same as “Wonder”, so the buff after the rating is invalid for this project.

 

     Even so, Li Yaolin is very satisfied. After the development funds increased by 40%, she is one step closer to the goal of saving enough funds to build a hotel.

 

     In addition, since the turnover reached one million yuan, the turnover of Xingzhou Island has reached tens of millions to date, and more than five million yuan was made during the National Day alone. – The area of sea that Xingzhou Island can use will increase by at least 1,400 hectares next year!

 

 

 

     Li Yaolin feels that she will soon become a “sea landlord”.

 

     Then comes the second point: the construction and decoration standards of all infrastructure are updated to 4A level.

 

     Previously, when planning and constructing the infrastructure of Xingzhou Island, such as the ring road and supporting facilities, and the buildings on the island, their styles, spatial dimensions, and building materials could be selected and designed by Li Yaolin, but there was no detailed description.

 

     Now that the standards have been updated, it can be found that under this level of standards, the corrosion resistance, safety, firmness and stability of all infrastructure have been greatly improved.

 

     Take the holiday cabin as an example. Even if it is a product of the system, its service life will only be a little longer than that of an ordinary cabin. Now, with the improvement of safety performance, its service life will be longer.

 

     Besides, infrastructure such as docks, which are soaked in seawater for a long time and are the most corroded, will be more corrosion-resistant under the 4A standard. A dock can be used for more than ten years without maintenance without worrying about it collapsing.

 

     What makes Li Yaolin happy is that the “Summer Style” gate awarded by the system has also been upgraded to a 4A-level “Four Seasons Change” gate. Its wall color will present different visual effects according to the season and temperature. 

 

     For example, it is November now, and the highest temperature during the day is around 27℃, so the overall style of the wall seen by the naked eye is cold, but with a bit of warmth.

 

     Finally, there are two landmarks obtained.

 

     The lighthouse that Li Yaolin obtained was an octagonal lighthouse, 18 meters high, 2 meters in diameter, with a 3-meter-high space of about 40 square meters at the bottom. There is a ladder leading to the top of the tower from this level. The top of the tower is equipped with a lens, so that the light emitted here can be seen from all directions.

 

     As for the “Mermaid Square”, it is a fountain-style square covering an area of 300 square meters, with a 3-meter-high mermaid sculpture in the middle, of which the mermaid statue is 1.5 meters high (2 meters long overall), and the 1.5 meters below is a sculpture of waves holding the mermaid.

 

     The mermaid has big wavy hair, but the image of male and female is indistinguishable:

 

     Its head is looking up at the sky at a 45° angle, with the fingertips of its right hand lightly touching its forehead, and its palm slightly covering its face, making it impossible to see its face from the front. If you look at it from the side, you can only see its “delicate facial features like sculptures”… Well, it is indeed a sculpture, and there is nothing wrong with describing it this way.

 

     Its upper body is “wearing” clothes, revealing only the fishtail part below the mermaid line. The fish tail curled back is very long, with smooth lines and delicate and beautiful scales. It is just an unpainted plaster sculpture, but it gives people the illusion that the scales are colorful.

 

     The whole sculpture is lifelike, and it looks like a beautiful mermaid riding the surging waves and appearing in front of everyone.

 

     Of course, the island owner who replaced it with the image of a little mermaid would only complain: “This posture is so pretentious! Did you learn it from the male lead of the idol drama more than ten years ago?”

 

     The little mermaid: “…”

 

     It hummed and said: “The island owner is jealous of my beauty!”

 

     “Wow, you are so shameless that you actually admitted that the sculpture is you?!” Li Yaolin looked at its Q version image: Sorry, I really can’t find any beauty in such a chubby and round image.

 

 

 

    Li Yaolin placed the lighthouse at the highest point of Xingzhou Island. It is only 100 meters away from the “Sun Viewing Platform”, so she simply built a 1.5-meter-wide road between the two buildings. As for the Mermaid Square, the little mermaid who never interfered with the island owner’s development plan gave a particularly positive suggestion this time: “The Mermaid Square can be placed on the sea surface in the north!”

 

     Li Yaolin glanced at the map: “North, isn’t that the scope of the protected area?”

 

     At the beginning, the 5 hectares of island land area in the north and northwest were designated as protected areas by Li Yaolin. Due to the restrictions on the use of islands, land and sea in the special protection area, Li Yaolin could not develop that area at will.

 

     The little mermaid gave a rare explanation: “This landmark is the most compatible with the protected area, and the landmark is an infrastructure, which is only for sightseeing and resting, and has little impact on the environment! It’s just that the island owner’s development rights in the area are restricted, so the construction progress of this landmark will be much slower than other landmarks!”

 

     Li Yaolin glanced at the construction time of the lighthouse: 10 days.

 

     She thought, anyway, it’s just a square, whether the construction period is fast or slow, it doesn’t matter much. Since it’s the little mermaid’s building, she will satisfy its selfishness for the time being!

 

     Fortunately, the construction time of the Mermaid Square is not particularly slow, it only takes 45 days, and she can still wait for this month and a half.

 

 

 

…

 

 

     “Sanniang, have I been busy working overtime for too long and haven’t visited the island? When I came, I found that the island seemed to have changed!”

 

     At 7:30 in the morning, Zheng Xuan saw Li Yaolin when she went to the employee cafeteria for breakfast, so she sat down next to her and talked about her new discovery this morning.

 

     Recently, she has to rush to make various prototypes of hand-made figures and take online classes to learn modeling. Every day, she goes between the employee dormitory and the office. But when Qin Yutang taught her, he asked her to observe the objects around her more, which can train her to better understand the structure and form of these objects, and their different performances in different environments, so she is used to observing the scenery and objects along the way.

 

     This morning’s observation found the difference.

 

     Li Yaolin didn’t expect the little sister to be so careful. She pretended to be indifferent and asked back: “What has changed?”

 

     “Hmm…” Zheng Xuan recalled, “There are more green plants on both sides of the road, and there are more solar landscape lights on the roadside. There is also a small pavilion in the middle of the road where I came. The appearance of the public toilet has also become very beautiful.”

 

     “What do you think?”

 

     “It’s good. I feel that the overall landscape environment has been upgraded.”

 

     Li Yaolin nodded with satisfaction: “It seems that the effect of this upgrade and renovation is very good.”

 

     Zheng Xuan suddenly realized that the landscape had been upgraded. However, the construction noise was too small, right? If she hadn’t observed carefully, she would have really ignored it.

 

     She asked again: “What about the mountain? I saw construction notices and iron walls. What are they building there?”

 

     “Lighthouse, I’ll show you the renderings when I get back to the office.”

 

     Zheng Xuan smiled and said: “The facilities on the island are becoming more and more complete.”

 

     In fact, it was not just Zheng Xuan. Other employees also found that the facilities on the island had been upgraded, but they were accustomed to this kind of silent construction and did not take it to heart.

 

     Not long after work, the stationmaster of the reserve management station came to Li Yaolin to discuss her plan to build a square in the reserve.

 

     Li Yaolin felt that building in the reserve was different from the past. When she placed the lighthouse landmark, the project was directly approved and the official procedures were handled by the little mermaid. When she placed the mermaid square in the reserve, although she also obtained official approval, she had to discuss it with the people of the reserve management station.

 

     Although the management station believed that Xingzhou Island had reached an agreement with the official on the construction of this square, the management station still wanted to obtain the benefits that the reserve deserved from the perspective of protection work.

 

     Li Yaolin took out the relevant documents signed with the government and said: “The operating costs and sanitation of the area will be borne by our Xingzhou Island. If a safety accident occurs, the responsible party will also be our Xingzhou Island. In addition, I will give out 5% of the ticket revenue as Xingzhou Island’s support for the work of the reserve.”

 

     Previously, Xingzhou Island had reached an agreement with the government on joint development and operation, and for this reason, Xingzhou Island also gave out 5% of the ticket revenue as the “operating income” of the reserve.

 

     At the beginning, Xingzhou Island received only 500 tourists per day, and the ticket revenue was about 10,000 yuan, so the daily income of 500 yuan was not much for the reserve. But now, during the off-season, Xingzhou Island has at least 3,000 tourists per day, and the ticket revenue is 50,000 to 60,000 yuan. Xingzhou Island gave up 5% of the ticket revenue on the basis of the original concession, and the daily income of the reserve is nearly 6,000 yuan.

 

     The stationmaster had no objection, and the Mermaid Square was successfully built at the north end of Xingzhou Island.

 

 

 

     The effect of the 4A-level scenic spot is not only reflected in the update and reward of the APP. For many people, this small plaque is authoritative. The public has a high evaluation of the scenic spot and is more accepting of its business philosophy and culture. Therefore, after the news reported that Xingzhou Island was rated as 4A, more and more tourists knew about its existence.

 

     During the National Day, the popularity of Xingzhou Island was 30%. According to the system’s definition of “popularity”, more than 10 million people must know and have a positive impression of Xingzhou Island to meet the conditions.

 

     After this wave of media publicity, at least 20 million people have known and have a positive image of Xingzhou Island, and even have the intention to travel.

 

     Especially after the beginning of winter, the temperature in most parts of the north has dropped to single digits, and the northernmost three provinces in the northeast have even begun to snow, so people in these areas choose to go to the relatively warm south for vacation during the holidays.

 

     In previous years, Qionghai was the most popular, but this year Xingzhou Island has emerged as a dark horse, and many tourists are running to Xingzhou Island. They first flew to the airport in the neighboring city, and then took a ride for an hour and a half to Baoren Port Wharf.

 

     Many hitchhiking drivers who work in Wu City but live in You City have found that there are more and more orders destined for Baoren Port Terminal. In the past, the extra money they earned in a month was just enough to subsidize the gas and tolls. Recently, they have not only recovered their investment, but also made a surplus.

 

     Except for the well-known Yuhai Park and open-pit mine, they rarely pay attention to which scenic spots in Yóushì are more fun. Therefore, after asking them about the increase in tourists in Xingzhou Island, they have to learn about Xingzhou Island in order to answer related questions.

 

     As a result, after this understanding, they found that they were behind, – they actually knew that there was such a beautiful scenic spot in “home”. Guests from thousands of miles away have flocked here, but they, the “family members”, have not been there yet!

 

     If you ask these online car-hailing and hitchhiking drivers about their thoughts on opening tourist special lines or through buses, they naturally don’t want bus companies or passenger transport companies to steal their business.

 

     However, the municipal government saw the development prospects of Xingzhou Island and thought that it was a good plan to let Xingzhou Island drive the development of some rural tourism in Biwan District. Therefore, the relevant departments have begun to discuss with the Jiaotong Group behind the bus company the possibility of opening a tourist line from “Biwan Station to Baoren Port Wharf”.

 

     There are currently three passenger transport methods that can be planned and implemented. One is to let the bus company open a bus line from Biwan Station to Baoren Port Wharf, set up stops in some towns along the way, and form a tourism economic circle. The disadvantage of this plan is that it may take an hour or even longer to travel more than 30 kilometers.

 

     The second is to operate a tourist bus from Biwan Station to Baoren Port Wharf by the bus station, and only set up stops at the scenic spot of Lady Xian’s former residence. The disadvantage is that when encountering the off-season, the operating costs of the passenger transport company remain unchanged, but the income plummets and cannot be recovered.

 

     Another way is to incorporate Baoren Port Wharf into the Binhai Tourism Through Bus Line and set it as the last stop.

 

     Li Yaolin had learned about this coastal tourist through bus route. It started at the Telecom Building in the city center, passed two tourist attractions on the way, and ended at the Romantic Sea House Resort. Not to mention that the Telecom Building was not close to the high-speed rail station, it only had two trips a day. Even if Baoren Port Terminal was added to the route, it would not be very convenient for tourists.

 

     The matter was deadlocked again.

 

 

 

     Not long after, a new turn of events occurred.