If in later generations, when mentioning the country of Sri Lanka, people's first reaction may be tourism, followed by the abundance of gems there, Ceylon is a country rich in all kinds of gemstones, whether it is opal, ruby, sapphire, etc., all can be found here, it can be said that it is a well-deserved gem kingdom. One of the reasons why Li Su asked Li Zhen and Li Yun for this place was that he fell in love with the gem mines on Ceylon Island.

The gem mines on the island of Ceylon are mainly concentrated in the middle of the south, where the famous Buddhist holy city of Kandy is located, but in the seventh century AD, the city of Kandy has not yet appeared, but the gems there have been mined for hundreds of years, but because of the backward mining technology, the previous Ceylon gem production was not large, and there was no fame.

However, after Li Yu occupied this place, the news of the abundance of gems here was immediately spread, and as a result, a large number of prospectors came to search for treasures, and many large gem mines were discovered, and under the advanced mining technology of the Han people, the output of gems rose almost in a straight line, and now it has become one of the pillar industries of Ceylon, and in the location of Kandy City in the later generations, there has also been a city under construction, called Gem City.

Gem City is located in the northeast of the Buddha City, two hundred miles away, in the past because of the transport of gems, so there is a wide dirt road to communicate, Liu Renliang is planning to change this road to a cement road, but unfortunately the cement factory on the island is still too little, the cement produced is not much, if it is transported from Taiwan and other places, the transportation cost alone is high, so this road has to be a few years before it can start.

There are many kinds of gemstones mined in Gem City, and they are usually sorted and processed there. Then send it to the Buddha City, especially the new Buddha City near the sea. There is one of the largest gemstone trading areas on the island of Ceylon, and seventy percent of the gemstones mined on the island are sent here. Then it is selected by the merchants who come and go. Li Su had heard of this place long before he came to Ceylon, so after coming to the New Buddha City, the first thing he did was to come here.

In fact, the reason why Li Su knew about the gem trading area of Xinfo City was not to listen to the reports of his subordinates, but to be told by several women such as Wen Xin and Xijun, after all, for women, these shiny little things like gems have incomparable charm, and they used to be selected in jewelry stores in Taiwan. I often heard others talk about the gem trading area of Ceylon, so this time Li Su wanted to come to Ceylon, and they deliberately told him that he must come here to choose some gems for them, and even the ugly little girl clamored for gems as gifts.

It was also under the pressure of the whole family, and Li Su also wanted to see the gem trade in Ceylon with his own eyes, so he is now walking in the gem trading area of the New Buddha City, looking leisurely at the vendors selling gems on both sides.

"Rooster, please open the red bun in my body. Definitely like the best red buns! A Persian with his head wrapped in a turban solicited business from Li Su in broken Chinese that made people listen to a toothache. It's okay to call Childe a rooster, but he can't even tell the difference between gems and buns, and he still has the courage to solicit business from others. It's hard enough for him.

The gemstone trading area is located on the east side of the New Buddha City and covers a large area, accounting for almost one-tenth of the total area of the New Buddha City. Together, there are several streets, and on either side of these streets. There are large and small gem shops, and in the open spaces on both sides of the street. There are also many gem merchants who set up stalls to sell gemstones. Among them, the gems are mainly sold by the local Sinhalese, and there are also a small number of Han, Persian, Tianzhu people, etc., while the people who buy gems are just the opposite, almost all of them are foreign merchants, and it is rare to see local Sinhalese people buying here.

Li Su has gone all the way, and there have been many merchants who have sold their gems to him, but because the occupation time here in Ceylon is still too short, the promotion effect of sinicization is not obvious, although most of the foreign merchants can speak some simple Chinese, but they are not fluent, so for their promotion, Li Su did not pay much attention, just casually looked at it and walked away.

Speaking of the gems on both sides of the street did open Li Su's eyes, in addition to the ordinary red sapphire, even opal is often seen, but the selection of cat's eye is a university question, not all cat's eyes are valuable, and the best cat's eye can be met but not sought.

"Xiao Lin, I heard that there are not many Han people who go to look for gem mines, why are there very few Han people who sell gems now, and there are not even as many as Persians?" Li Su suddenly opened his mouth and asked a handsome young man beside him. This young man is Wenxin's cousin Xiao Lin, who has been transferred to New Buddha City for nearly a year, and is now in charge of the commercial development of New Buddha City, and is one of Liu Renliang's right-hand men.

And Xiao Lin heard Li Su's question but smiled and said: "Liulang doesn't know, our Han gem mines generally have fixed suppliers, as long as they are mined, they will be directly transported to Taiwan or Datang and other places through the port, and even gem processing is not done here, and now the Han people who are doing gem business here are all doing some bulk business, and most of them are concentrated in Chinatown in the east, where almost all the shops are opened by Han people, if Liulang wants to buy gemstones, he can go there to go around." ”

Li Su and Xiao Lin are all traveling in civilian clothes, so Xiao Lin naturally doesn't need to call Li Su His Royal Highness. And Li Su was also stunned when he heard the name Chinatown, but he didn't expect that in a place like Buddha City, there would already be a Chinatown. This made him very interested, and immediately urged Xiao Lin to lead the way, he must go and see.

Chinatown is not far from where they are, just turn a few small alleys to arrive, but as soon as he arrives, Li Su immediately feels like he has returned to the Tang Dynasty, the whole street is full of Tang style buildings, even the shop signs are all written in Chinese characters, the wide cement road is full of pedestrians, and the density of Han people here is indeed much higher than in other places.

Coming to this Chinatown, Li Su immediately felt a sense of cordiality, although he had only stayed in Ceylon for less than a month, but he already had some faith in Taiwan, especially when he liked to add curry no matter what he did here, there was no chili pepper in the curry, which made him particularly unbearable, so when he smelled the fragrance of the restaurant on this street, he couldn't help but saliva flowed out.

"Xiao Lin, let's go, let's go to the restaurant first to taste whether the wine and food here are authentic?" Li Su looked at the nearest three-story restaurant to him, and said in a good mood.

Xiao Lin laughed secretly in his heart after hearing this, they had just eaten before they came out, but Li Su in order to show that he was approachable, so he ate with ordinary officials in the big canteen of their Ministry of Commerce, but it was just the so-called following the local customs, and the most common curry mutton was made in the big canteen today, which made Li Su, who had just arrived in Ceylon, unaccustomed to it, so a plate of mutton didn't eat much at all, no wonder he was clamoring to eat now.

After entering the restaurant, Li Su took the recipe and ordered a few dishes to eat, Xiao Lin accompanied him, and when the wine and food just came up, Li Su immediately ate Haisai for a while, he was secretly traveling this time, and the accompanying personnel were all reduced, like cooks and the like didn't bring at all, and Ceylon likes to add that kind of primitive curry to any meal here, which made Li Su suffer.

The food in this restaurant is good, at least the taste has not changed because of the change of location, but if it is placed in China, this restaurant is only at the midstream level at most, but this is the new Buddha City, and it is very good to have a place where Chinese food is so authentic.

After eating and drinking, Li Su only had a Chinatown turnaround, and found that there were not only many gem shops here, but also many Central Plains specialty commodity stores, such as porcelain, silk, and other things known to the public, and some more distinctive things, such as Datang clothing, daily necessities, etc., and even Li Su also found a snack bar, which served all kinds of snacks from the Central Plains, but unfortunately there was a long queue at the door of the store, and most of them were aliens.

Since he came to Chinatown, he naturally couldn't miss the most gem shops here, and a bunch of women in the family were waiting to ask him for accounts, so Li Su finally came to the largest gem store in Chinatown accompanied by Xiao Lin.

This gemstone shop is called the Treasure Pavilion, which is a four-story building, each floor is divided into different areas, and they deal in different types of gemstones, such as ruby sapphire, cat's eye, amethyst, purple jadeite, etc., among which the gemstones on the first floor are the cheapest, the higher the price, and of course, the better the quality of the gemstones.

Li Su wanted to buy gems for his family, so he naturally went directly to the fourth floor, the shopkeeper of this store knew Xiao Lin, and saw that this young man could let Minister Xiao, who was in charge of business, accompany him, he must be a big man, so he accompanied him personally, and also took out all the treasures of the town store in the store.

For the service of this store, Li Su felt very satisfied, especially when the shopkeeper took out their treasure of the town, a necklace made of dark green cat's eye, it made Li Su a little surprised, although Ceylon Island is rich in cat's eye gemstones, but among them, amber and dark green are the rarest, generally these two colors of cat's eye, just the size of a mung bean is worth a lot, not to mention that the cat's eye on this necklace is almost all made of a finger's belly-sized cat's eye, and the bottom one is the size of a pigeon's egg, which can be said to be very rareIt is not an exaggeration to say that it is worth a lot of money.

Of course, this cat's eye necklace is also worth a lot of money, even if the shopkeeper gave them a 20% discount, and finally it was bought by Li Su at a price of 98,000 yuan, and there is also a necklace made of pure sapphires, which is also the treasure of the treasure pavilion, and was finally bought by Li Su at a large price.

It's just that being able to take out two treasures of the town store is already the limit of the treasure pavilion, and the rest are some gemstone jewelry of poor quality, which makes Li Su a little difficult, because there are five women and a girl in the family, how can the two pieces of jewelry be divided? (To be continued......)