Chapter 331 Highly Urbanized

Chapter 331 Highly Urbanized

Chapter 331 Highly Urbanized

Southeast Asia, Sumatra.

A transport airship loaded with 2000 tons of cargo came from the airport in the Pearl River Delta and slowly docked in a small city on the south coast of Sumatra.

The city is called Kota Agung, located in a bay in the southern part of Sumatra Island, separated from Java Island by the Sunda Strait.

Originally, this small city was a very inconspicuous place among the South Pacific Islands.

But since last year, this small city has ushered in tremendous development.

Because Kota Agong became a fulcrum city for one of the two sea routes connecting the Asian Commonwealth to Antarctica.

Since Kota Agong can be translated as "great city" in the local language, it was officially named "Great City" in the internal naming of the Asian Commonwealth.

To the south of the great city is a small peninsula, which is also the starting point of the Ceylon Ocean route on the Asia-Antarctica sea route.

After the transport airship docks at the floating sea and air port in the bay, the containers will be unloaded one by one and transported to the great city via the floating island bridge.

The city's newly built streets were crowded with people.

There are many locals who come from Java Island across the sea to work or do business. This city originally did not have many residents, but now the population has reached nearly 880,000.

Although the population has soared suddenly, the local housing supply is very sufficient. In the residential areas built using the integrated housing technology, about 12 qualified integrated houses were built in about half a year. Combined with the existing houses in the area, there is an average of one house for every five people.

Yet the city’s population is still soaring.

Relying on the surrounding terrain, the great city expanded its urban area towards the high-altitude mountains of the small peninsula.

The reason for expanding urban area to high-altitude mountains is naturally to prevent the risk of future sea level rise.

The city's prosperity was mainly due to the construction of the Ceylon Ocean sea route.

The so-called Ceylon Ocean Sea Route Project is to connect Asia and Antarctica and transmit the electricity generated by the Antarctic solar energy development plan to Asia via submarine cables.

A transmission line built for this purpose has a total length of 6500 kilometers, and most of the line is on the seabed.

However, considering the need to maintain submarine cables and develop submarine resources, it is planned to build 6500 large floating island cities along the 13-kilometer straight line.

Weicheng is the starting point city connecting these 13 floating island cities on the sea.

Therefore, many supporting projects are undertaken here.

The arrival of these supporting projects has brought a large number of jobs to the local area. In the future, with the huge amount of electricity brought by the Antarctic solar energy development plan, it will be continuously imported into the hinterland of Asia through the city, which will also bring huge benefits.

For example, by utilizing cheap and abundant electricity, the rich tin mines in Sumatra, and the rich bauxite mines on the seabed of the Strait of Malacca.

According to the latest exploration data, the ancient alluvial plain on the seabed of the Strait of Malacca is rich in bauxite. The initial exploration shows that the amount of exploitable resources is about 7.5 million tons.

In ancient times, the South Sea Islands in Southeast Asia were actually a connected landmass during some relatively cold times. These ancient landmasses contained many sedimentary minerals.

Including bauxite, limonite, kaolin, gypsum, etc.

For example, in recent years, a large number of high-grade iron blocks and bauxite have been discovered on the continental shelves of the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea, and in the ancient Three Seas Plain.

Among them, the largest shallow iron ore was discovered in the shallow waters west of the Penghu Islands. A piece of high-grade limonite with a reserve of no less than 120 billion tons was found on the seabed of this sea area.

With the emergence of the Asian Union, various development obstacles in the waters near East Asia, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia have almost disappeared.

The current issues that need to be considered in shallow-water mineral mining are mining costs, mining technology, and environmental impact.

Considering that the land resources can barely sustain for a while, the Asian Consortium is not too anxious to develop seabed minerals.

Instead, they adopted a method of mining and repairing at the same time.

For example, if there is iron ore in a sea area, the mining area in that sea area will be divided into blocks, namely mining area, area to be mined, resource reserve area and restoration area.

In terms of mining methods, we try to choose types that are more friendly to the marine environment.

Of the several bauxite mines on the seabed of the Strait of Malacca, only one has been granted development permission and is expected to supply about 200 million tonnes of high-grade bauxite annually to an aluminium smelter on the island of Sumatra.

In fact, the electrolytic aluminum industry in Sumatra can also utilize bauxite on the land of the South Pacific Islands. After all, the local red soil tropical rainforest contains a large amount of undiscovered bauxite.

As for why we have to build the Ceylon Ocean submarine cable instead of taking a route through Oceania, the reason is naturally that Australia is still holding on.

Because Australia has a relatively small population and a vast area of ​​arable land, it can be self-sufficient in the supply of food and various agricultural products. In terms of industrial products, they would rather choose EU products than be strangled by the Asian Union.

Relations between the two sides are now very cold.

Currently, only a certain amount of trade in iron ore, bauxite and copper is maintained, and Australia purchases a certain amount of industrial products from the Asian Community based on these profits.

They did not completely rely on the cheap industrial products of the Asian Union because they were worried about being annexed, so they had to grit their teeth and purchase some of the high-priced industrial products of the European Union.

It is precisely because of the cold relationship between the two sides that the Asian Commonwealth would naturally not consider letting the cable pass through Oceania, but instead chose a plan where the entire line is under the sea.

In fact, Australia is also very conflicted right now.

The main reason was that America declined too quickly, causing Australia to lose the protection of America before it was ready, and had to face the nearby Asian Union on its own.

If a head-on conflict breaks out between Australia and the Asian Union, America, separated by the Pacific Ocean, obviously will not be able to fully support Australia. After all, the geographical location and comprehensive strength of the three regions determine the level of force that the three parties can deploy in Oceania.

If the overall strength of the Asian Union is 100, then America's overall strength is around 30, and Australia's is only around 2.

America transports resources from North America to Oceania, and being able to exert 30 of its 10 overall strength is already an ideal situation.

There is almost no discount when the Asian Federation delivers resources to Oceania, and the combined strength of 100 is real power.

Perhaps Australia can leverage its local advantages to achieve the effect of 2 with a comprehensive strength of 4.

Therefore, the power comparison among the three parties in Oceania is roughly: 100:10:4
There is no need to fight at all, they will be crushed by the Asian Union.

If it weren't for the nuclear weapons held by America and the fact that there was no need to achieve its goals through such a mutually destructive approach, Australia would have been able to survive.

However, being able to survive does not mean that they dare to anger the Asian Union. For example, Australia does not dare to invite America to come and support it as it did in the past.

The current situation is that the offense and defense have changed.

...

In the new urban area of ​​the great city, women crowded shoulder to shoulder, shopping for daily necessities and food in the bustling commercial street.

"Don't miss it if you pass by. Fresh big cherries from Bohai Sea are only 16 yuan per pound." The loud speaker of a fruit shop continued to play in the local language.

A middle-aged woman was holding her daughter in one hand and a bamboo basket in the other. She was a little annoyed by the propaganda noise from the loudspeaker next to her ears.

Fortunately, the movable photovoltaic film arranged above the city covers part of the city, and the electricity generated by the photovoltaic film is used in the city's life and production.

For example, in order to attract customers, the shops along the commercial street all turned on the air-conditioning, and the cool breeze blew out from inside the shops.

Pedestrians on the street can feel the cool breeze.

In fact, many tropical cities are not hot now. This is because photovoltaic films are laid over these cities, which can reflect a large part of the heat. In addition, with various refrigeration equipment inside the city, the temperature in these tropical cities is generally below 30 degrees Celsius during the day and below 25 degrees Celsius at night.

Suya's sleeve was pulled by her daughter Dana. She immediately saw her daughter staring at the silk clothes in a clothing store not far away:
"Mom, can I buy you a skirt?"

Su Ya was calculating this month's expenses in her mind. Her husband was a truck driver in the Donggang District of Weicheng, earning nearly 10,000 yuan a month.

She works as a dishwasher in a restaurant and earns more than 3,000 yuan a month.

However, she has three children, so her current income is just barely enough to make ends meet, but it is much better than before. Her family used to live on Java Island, where the population was dense and the income was very low.

I glanced at the advertising slogan posted at the entrance of the clothing store: "100% off for the entire store? yuan per piece?"

Su Ya felt that the price was barely acceptable, so she took her daughter Dana over, but she still told her daughter: "Dana, just pick a skirt, nothing else, understand?"

"Okay, Mom." Dana was very happy.

The female clerk saw the mother and daughter and came over with a smile: "You two, feel free to pick out any clothes you need. Today we have a 20% discount, buy one get one free."

"What to give?" Su Ya couldn't help but ask.

The clerk knew that the other party had taken the bait, and said with a more flattering smile: "Madam, if you buy a piece of clothing today, our store will give you a piece of underwear for free."

Under the enthusiastic recommendation of the clerk, Su Ya bought three pieces of clothing without realizing it. Although they only cost 264 yuan after the discount, she regretted it after paying, thinking that she could not resist the temptation.

The clothes in these clothing stores are all priced relatively low, and their properties are the same as those of natural silk. The reason why the prices are so cheap is mainly because the production capacity of silk soybeans in Seres has soared.

Of course, these clothes are so cheap that they actually have a disadvantage, which is that their service life is generally not more than one year, especially when used for daily wear. If you don't use special silk detergents, these clothes will age faster.

This is also done intentionally by the manufacturer in order to increase sales and limit the product's life cycle to one year.

After buying clothes, Su Ya met her next-door neighbor.

"Su Ya? What are you buying?" A chubby middle-aged woman holding a few plastic bags looked at Su Ya.

"Sister Lu Si, I just bought some clothes." Su Ya replied with a smile, and then she also chatted about family matters: "What about you?"

"I bought some chicken and coconuts to make coconut chicken tonight." Ruth raised the bag in her left hand.

"Coconut chicken? I just made it a few days ago. I don't know what to make today?" Su Ya looked like she had a headache.

Lu thought for a moment and gave a suggestion: "I just saw some mutton on sale in the market. Why don't you buy some mutton and take it home?"

"Mutton? I'll go check it out."

After chatting for a while, Su Ya took her daughter to the market next door. After entering the market, the central air-conditioning inside the fully enclosed market provided sufficient cold air, making people even feel a little cold.

"Mom, I want to eat sausage!"

"You know how to eat."

"My brother likes to eat it too, but you only blame me." The daughter muttered softly.

Su Ya ignored her daughter and went to the stall selling mutton. She found that there was indeed a discount, but the mutton was all frozen hard, not freshly slaughtered, chilled meat.

"Boss, can you give me a discount?"

The boss held a cigarette in his mouth, laughed dryly and shook his head: "This is already the cheapest, only 12 yuan per pound, go ask other stalls to see if they have the same price."

"Yours is frozen meat, theirs is fresh, can you give it a discount?" Su Ya started bargaining.

"I just earn a little hard-earned money, I can't be any cheaper..."

After arguing for five or six minutes, the boss finally gave in and gave Suya half a pound of mutton fat, while she bought three pounds of mutton leg meat.

The fattening sheep raised in Mobei are indeed very cheap, but they are relatively fat. Their sales in Seris are not very good, so they can only be frozen and sold to Southeast Asia.

One lap down.

Su Ya spent more than two hundred yuan on food and daily necessities, plus more than two hundred yuan on clothes, for a total of almost five hundred yuan.

This kind of consumption is quite common in Weicheng, and many people have their wallets emptied by the dazzling array of goods without realizing it.

Of course, the prerequisite for supporting this kind of consumption is sufficient income and adequate goods.

A family like Su Ya's, with a monthly income of about 1.4 yuan and daily food expenses of about 500 yuan per person per month, can live a pretty good life.

Including other expenses, a family of five needs to spend about 5000 yuan a month to live a good life.

The local housing price is about 4000 to 5000 yuan per square meter.

For example, the house purchased by Su Ya's family is 120 square meters in total, and the total price is 51.9 yuan, plus an interest rate of 3.2%, and the repayment period is 15 years, which means the monthly repayment is about yuan.

Therefore, the core expenditure of their family is concentrated on the education of their three children.

This is also a more realistic situation.

Seres' overseas companies will not allow ordinary people in Southeast Asia to sit back and relax, but will force ordinary people there to invest more in their children's education through academic qualification restrictions.

This is not just a limitation for undergraduate and junior college students. There are various limitations on language and technical majors. If you want to excel, you must continue to invest in education.

Although the various technical schools run by the Asian Consortium are not as bone-sucking as America's education model, they are also quite strict, with tuition fees set based on the median per capita income.

(End of this chapter)