Fortunately, this embarrassing time was not long, because at this time, the convoy had already arrived in Tianjin New Area, and was moving along the Li Shunde Hotel where Hongzhang and others stayed on Victoria Yali Road (Jiefang North Road). Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although the roads in Tianjin New Area are relatively narrow, but there are also a few roads that are relatively wide, Victoria Arley Road is the main road of the original Tianjin British Concession, so the road is relatively wide, in the old time and space, can reach the standard of four lanes, can fully meet the requirements of the bus. Although the traversers occupied Tianjin for four months, due to various reasons, the names of the roads in the Tianjin concession area were not modified, and the names of the foreign languages in the past were still used, but they were converted into Chinese characters.

Li Hongzhang looked at the buildings on both sides of the street through the car window, and sighed in his heart. The Tianjin British Concession is no stranger to Li Hongzhang, when Li Hongzhang was the governor of the Zhili, he would go to the Tianjin British Concession almost every few days, either invited to participate in various activities in the concession, or to negotiate with the British, although no matter what the occasion, Li Hongzhang is a guest of honor, but the entire concession is the world of the British, so foreigners walk here with their heads up, although there are also a large number of Chinese living in the concession. work, but in terms of mental temperament, he is obviously a head lower than foreigners, and he doesn't even dare to straighten his waist when he walks.

But this time through the car window, Li Hongzhang saw that the Chinese walking on the street obviously raised their heads and chests, and became much more confident, on the contrary, the foreigners seemed to be impotent, forming a big contrast with before.

It didn't take long for the three buses to arrive at the door of the Li Shunde Hotel, and at this time, the Li Shunde Hotel had already made preparations to welcome Li Hongzhang and his party.

The last time Zhang Peilun was greeted, Li Shunde Hotel held a grand welcome ceremony, and Li Hongzhang's identity, status, influence, and popularity are far above Zhang Peilun, so this time it is naturally more grand.

However, when Zhang Peilun visited Tianjin, the traveler had just taken over the Li Shunde Hotel not long ago, and many of the hotel's facilities were not perfect, so it was still a little constrained, and now nearly three months have passed, and the renovation of the Li Shunde Hotel has basically come to an end.

In order to welcome Li Hongzhang and his entourage, Yang Yuxin, the general manager of Li Shunde Hotel, began to prepare two days in advance, first of all, he put up lights at the door of the hotel, hung up nearly 100 red lanterns, and arranged 24 hostesses, and also set up an honor guard with drummers. And from the locals also pulled up a few dragon dance and lion dance teams to increase the atmosphere, and finally assisted on the ground - a red carpet, although this red carpet was slandered by many travelers, whether this is to welcome Li Hongzhang or welcome movie stars, but Yang Yuxin finally decided to do so.

After the bus convoy entered the field of vision, the firecrackers were first set off on both sides of Victoria Road, and when the bus stopped at the entrance of the Lee Shunde Hotel, the firecrackers ended, and the guard of honor immediately drummed in unison, which was well connected. The dragon dance and lion dance also danced on both sides of the bus, and the atmosphere was really warm.

After Li Hongzhang got out of the car, under the guidance of two hostesses, he walked side by side along the red carpet with Qin Zheng, got up and arrived at the door of the Li Shunde Hotel, Zhang Peilun, Li Jingfang, the observation group and others followed behind them.

Yang Yuxin, the general manager of Li Shunde Hotel, led a large number of local gentry, businessmen, and celebrities in Tianjin to greet Li Hongzhang at the door of the hotel. There were more than 120 distinguished guests who came to the Li Shunde Hotel to welcome Li Hongzhang this time, including more than 90 foreigners, most of whom were personnel of consulates and businessmen of various countries, while less than 30 Chinese were basically local gentry and celebrities in Tianjin.

Among the Chinese who welcomed Li Hongzhang and his entourage were Zhao Weizhong. In the past, Zhao Weizhong was just a small businessman who depended on Li Hongzhang's subordinates to survive in Tianjin, with assets of only a few hundred taels of silver, and he did not enter the business community in Tianjin at all. However, in the past few months, Zhao Weizhong's status in Tianjin's business community has skyrocketed, and he has already squeezed into the upper class. On the one hand, this is because Zhao Weizhong was the first local to establish a relationship with the traverser, and helped build a bridge and pave the way between the traverser and Li Hongzhang, so he is very valued by the traverser and Li Hongzhang. Zhao Weizhong also made full use of his advantages in Tianjin and Shanghai, and took advantage of the fact that Tianjin had just recovered from the war and lacked materials, so he bought a large number of goods from Shanghai and sold them in Tianjin, and the business was excellent, so his personal property also rose sharply.

On the other hand, as the first local to take refuge in the traverser, the traverser also intended to support Zhao Weizhong, taking him as a benchmark figure, and also took a fancy to his relationship with Li Hongzhang, and handed over many of the goods and materials he needed to Zhao Weizhong to buy on his behalf. At this time, Zhao Weizhong also showed a good attitude of cooperation, and Zhao Weizhong tried his best to reduce his profits in everything for the goods and materials purchased by the traverser, and was only satisfied with earning a small profit, so the prices of all the goods and materials purchased by Zhao Weizhong were much lower than those of other foreign merchants. In this way, the traverser is naturally very satisfied with Zhao Weizhong, and the goods and materials required are also handed over to Zhao Weizhong for purchase as much as possible.

Although Zhao Weizhong only made a small profit from it, but due to the large amount, the actual income is also considerable, in addition to Zhao Weizhong has his own other businesses, and the traverser also opened the door to him, as a result, it only took more than three months, Zhao Weizhong's personal assets rose to five thousand taels of silver, and he has four shops, two each in the old city and the new district of Tianjin. Li Hongzhang's relationship is unique among the businessmen in Tianjin, and this time Li Hongzhang and his party are welcomed, and he will naturally attend.

Among the people who came to welcome Li Hongzhang this time, except for a few who were invited for free, more than 100 people were invited, but they had to pay their own entrance fee, which was 30 taels of silver. In this era, this is a lot of money, which can provide ordinary people with a very comfortable life for one or two years.

But despite this, the gentry and businessmen who received the invitation all paid out of their own pockets and rushed to attend the banquet. Because being able to participate in this kind of banquet is itself a symbol of status, now the traverser is the actual ruler of Tianjin, and from the current form, the traverser must be an important force in China in the future, and Li Hongzhang is not to mention, so if you want to attend such an occasion, it is not just money, not to mention 30 taels of silver, for ordinary people, of course, it is a lot of money, but it is nothing to these gentry and businessmen, spend 30 taels of silver to give the traverser, Li Hongzhang has a show, maybe he can get a little relationship, it is really a good deal.

And there is another reason, that is, Li Shunde Hotel was originally one of the best hotels in the Tianjin Concession, with luxurious decoration and thoughtful service, and after the traveler took over the Li Shunde Hotel, the Li Shunde Hotel was renovated, so that the Li Shunde Hotel has undergone a lot of changes.

Of course, the building of the Li Shunde Hotel itself and the interior decoration have been done well, which does not need to make any changes, the main thing that the traveler has renovated is to increase the electrical equipment, clean furniture leading equipment, and the kitchen of the Li Shunde Hotel has been made some major changes.

Although Li Shunde Hotel introduced a generator in 1888, becoming the first hotel in China to use electric lighting, but the electric lights of this era are far from being compared with the old time and space in terms of brightness and shape, so after the transformation, Li Shunde Hotel has installed two solar panels to provide electricity, and is equipped with a diesel generator as a supplement, and the lobby, front hall, restaurant, corridor and other public places have been installed with different shapes of lighting furniture, and a number of outdoor lighting furniture has also been installed outdoors.

In addition to lighting, other improvements include the installation of a set of sound equipment, the replacement of public restrooms with modern cleaning equipment, and the replacement of the kitchen with a set of stainless steel furniture. There are a total of 150 rooms in the Li Shunde Hotel, and the traveler did not renovate all the rooms, but selected 18 luxuriously decorated rooms to be equipped with lighting and sanitary furniture.

Of course, the equipment and equipment used were dismantled from the Ro-Ro passenger ship Castle Peak Island. A RoPax ship itself is a huge mobile hotel on the sea, and all these equipment and equipment are naturally available.

After the renovation is completed, at night, the entire interior and exterior of the hotel are brightly lit, as bright as daytime, and you can see it from a long distance, which is quite eye-catching. As a result, the passenger flow has suddenly increased dramatically, and the daily operating income has also risen sharply, and it has become one of the most profitable enterprises among the various enterprises set up by the traverser.

However, Yang Yuxin, the general manager of Li Shunde Hotel, knows very well that relying on gimmicks such as lighting and sound cannot keep the hotel's business prosperous, after all, these are all virtual, and when this novelty passes, it will return to dullness.

In the old time and space, restaurants and hotels fought for food quality, service quality, and back-office management and business model, and this era is no exception. But these alone, is not enough to make Li Shunde Hotel in Tianjin, and even the whole of China stand out, become the benchmark of the times, Bi Jing these things, others can also do, want to dominate the industry, must come up with something that others do not have. Of course, there are too many cards to play for the traverser.

In the old time and space, the most common thing was to engage in some entertainment programs, and now the travelers also have convenient conditions, the original in each passenger ro-ro ship has a special multi-functional theater, that is, can be inserted into the movie, can also be used as a stage performance, there is also a friend of the performance team composed of professional actors, and some staff can also make a cameo appearance, in the journey for the passengers to perform entertainment programs. The hotel of this era also has the function of organizing a ball, and the Lishunde Hotel has a large ballroom and has held a dance party for many times, so it is completely possible to combine theatrical performance activities with the ball.

Yang Yuxin turned out to be the manager of the Qingshan Island Ro-Ro Passenger Ship, and of course he was very clear about the situation of each Ro-Ro Passenger Ship, and he also had rich experience in this aspect of activities, so under the organization of Yang Yuxin, he immediately organized the performance teams on the three Ro-Ro Passenger Ships and began to retrain and arrange the program. At the same time, Yang Yuxin first applied to the Ministry of Enterprise and Chemistry to obtain a set of stage performance sound and lighting equipment, and renovated the dance hall of the Li Shunde Hotel.