Chapter 20 It's time to go out and take a walk

  Pride is a common human emotion, from an ordinary person who has achieved nothing to becoming the president of a country through one's own wisdom and luck. This kind of transformation would make anyone feel proud; so what about regret? Liu Yue regrets that he has been in Taiwan for 15 years since crossing over, but apart from traveling around various places in Taiwan, he hasn't even been to Penghu. What does the outside world look like? Is it the same as what was written in the books he read before?

  In the past, Liu Mei didn't dare to go out and take a walk because various external and internal factors made her not dare to leave Taiwan, the only place where she felt safe. Now that the external forces have temporarily been eliminated and the internal environment has also been cleaned up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, can she finally go out and take a walk? She should be able to now, right? Liu Mei often answers herself like this lately.

  One morning, Liu Fei made a rather bold decision to travel around the world. Next, Liu Fei sent a telegram to David, telling him that he would inspect David's refrigerator factory in the United States as an investor of "Shandong Electric Company", and asked him to come and pick him up personally and keep his identity confidential. Then, Liu Fei also met with Taiwan's Vice President Mr. Liu Dagui, briefed him on some issues that needed attention, and told him his contact information.

  Liu Dagui has been following Liu Ye for over a decade, and there's nothing outstanding about him. He's not accomplished in his studies, nor is he clever. However, he has one major advantage that Liu Ye values highly: no matter what task Liu Ye assigns to him, he carries it out meticulously, never doing less than required, nor taking the initiative to do more. It's precisely because of this ability to replicate and execute orders that Liu Ye appointed him as his deputy. As a deputy, isn't he supposed to be like an extension of Liu Ye's own hand? Otherwise, what's the point of being called a deputy?

  He boarded a freighter of the Helena Shipping Company bound for San Francisco, accompanied by 5 bodyguards from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and set off on his first stop in the United States.

  San Francisco is a city located on the west coast of the United States, it's the fourth largest city in California. It borders the Pacific Ocean to the west and San Francisco Bay to the east, forming a peninsula. The famous Silicon Valley belongs to the San Francisco Bay Area.

  The English name of San Francisco is (SanFrancisco), translated as: Saint Francis. As soon as you hear the pronunciation, you can judge that this place was once occupied by Spain. The Spanish gave the city a very dull name, all kinds of "Saint", such as: Saint Diego, Saint Antonio, Saint Jacques, etc. However, there are exceptions: San Luis is a French name; while St. Petersburg... is Russian.

  It is said that the earliest Chinese people called this place "San Francisco", because it was read as "San F" in Cantonese, but I think this is not a Cantonese pronunciation, isn't it Hanyu Pinyin? When I was studying English in middle school, I also labeled English words with their pronunciations in Chinese, thinking that would be easier to remember, but later my English teacher severely corrected me...

  Why is San Francisco called San Francisco? From the literal understanding, it can be understood directly: gold was discovered before, so it was called Jinshan, and later Australia also discovered gold, so in order to distinguish, this place was called Old Gold Mountain, and Australia's was called New Gold Mountain. Before the discovery of gold mines in California, this was just a small Mexican village with a population of less than 500 people. As a result, the gold rushers from the eastern United States and all over the world, as well as the crowd serving the gold rushers, directly pushed the population here to 200,000 people. The famous cowboy pants "Levi's" was founded in San Francisco at that time, and Levi's is the abbreviation of the founder Li. Strauss' name.

  As a result of the discovery of gold mines, Americans sent troops to occupy it in 1848, and San Francisco officially became one of the counties of the 31st state.

  During the early days of the Gold Rush and until the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, San Francisco was an important destination for Chinese immigrants seeking to make a living. However, due to the exclusion act, many Chinese were unable to obtain legal status here and suffered greatly from discrimination. The great fire following the earthquake in 1906 destroyed all records at City Hall, allowing Chinese to purchase fake birth certificates and assume identities as native-born Chinese Americans, thereby gaining entry into the United States.

  Liu Qipeng stepped onto the dock of San Francisco in November 1901 and was warmly welcomed by the San Francisco business community, led by David and Schneider. Although still affected by the Chinese Exclusion Act, Liu did not feel intentionally discriminated against at the welcoming banquet arranged by David, where he met a few arrogant people, but that was their freedom, if they wanted to chat, they would chat, if not, then not, as for being arrogant or not, Liu didn't mind.

  The next day, David and Schneider took Liu to visit the refrigerator factory and motorcycle factory. Compared to refrigerators that are very popular with American families, motorcycles were a new plaything that was introduced and immediately gained popularity among young Americans. The tough styling, strong metallic texture, and roaring engine sound made young people's blood boil. So now, motorcycles have become a big toy for young people in the United States, especially in western cities. Another major sales route left Liu speechless: within less than half a year since the motorcycle was put into production, the biggest customers of motorcycles in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the largest city in the western United States, were gangsters.

  As it became a popular product, the motorcycle was much more expensive than the refrigerator. A brand new Changjiang 750 cost $899 and did not even come with a spare tire. For after-sales maintenance, newly built gas stations were mainly responsible, but due to the short training time, there were very few after-sales and maintenance personnel, and in case of major failures, they had to be returned to the factory.

  Although there are problems with expensive sales and difficult maintenance, the sales volume and sales prospects of motorcycles are very optimistic. Just as Liu came to the United States, the municipal governments of several cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles have ordered 300 vehicles from motorcycle manufacturers. These cities plan to equip their police with this type of vehicle to deal with gangsters riding motorcycles in urban areas that cannot be dealt with by horseback or horse-drawn carriages.

  The next day, David took Liu to explore the downtown area of Old San Francisco. At that time, Old San Francisco was not as large as it would be in later generations, with a population of only over 3 million people. The city looked relatively new, and the roads were relatively tidy. However, there was one thing that made Liu feel uncomfortable - Old San Francisco was built on hilly terrain, similar to Chongqing in China, with no flat roads. There were many steep slopes up and down, and the highways were all paved with stones. Although the horse-drawn carriage had shock absorbers, it still shook violently, making Liu feel like vomiting.

  When Liu Wei didn't adapt to riding a horse-drawn carriage, David suggested trying out one of San Francisco's specialties: the cable car. Upon hearing "cable car", Liu Wei's first impression was a small house suspended in mid-air, sliding up and down along steel cables. It wasn't until David pulled Liu Wei onto a several-meter-long "tram" and told him that this was the cable car that Liu Wei realized he had been mistaken. The steel cables of San Francisco's cable cars aren't in the sky, but rather are buried underground, with a metal claw inside the car grabbing onto the cable to propel the vehicle forward along two iron rails. At first glance, it looks like there are three steel rails, but actually the middle rail has a gap, and inside is the running cable.

  This cable car can hold about 10 people, and it's not very fast. You could easily catch up to it by jogging. There was a black driver on the cable car who controlled the steel claws. To speed up, he would grab onto the steel rope tightly, and to slow down, he would loosen his grip on the rope and pull the brake. Liu Mei spent 5 dollars to persuade the black man to let her try it herself, but she found out that it was hard labor. Without any mechanical assistance, you had to rely solely on your own arm strength to control the steel claws, which left her very tired.

  A black driver who got $5 out of thin air, smiled and watched Liu Ye operate the cable car on one side, and exchanged with David in a very heavy accent English, the two people occasionally stealing laughs.

  Just a block away, Liu Yue dropped the controller and stopped playing, asking David what they were laughing at. David replied that the black driver was deeply disappointed in the physical strength of the yellow race.

  He was despised, and it was a black man. Liu Ye was very angry, looking at the driver with a big white tooth still mocking himself, really wanting to go up and punch him, but after taking a look at his muscular arm, he endured it.

  At night, David took Liu Ye to a large estate outside the city and introduced him to this as San Francisco's highest-end nightlife, not only with all kinds of delicious food and wine, but also with socialite beauties.