The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 457 Hong Kong Subway
In the previous life, after the Hong Kong issue was settled, British companies led by Jardine Matheson began to gradually withdraw, while Chinese companies, especially Chinese real estate companies, began to gradually become the new decision-makers in Hong Kong's economy.

For real estate tycoons like Li Ka-shing, Li Zhaoji and Guo Desheng, their wealth began to expand rapidly like a balloon in the decade after 1985.

But it’s different in this life.

In 1982, the Hong Kong issue was settled, and Panshan Group was the real biggest winner.

The second is Henry Fok!

Others were businessmen who followed them, and they all made some gains to varying degrees. After a few years, their wealth had basically at least doubled.

As for those who have become disloyal, they are the biggest losers, especially those who chose to immigrate. They sold their houses at less than one-third of the price at that time. Now if they want to return to Hong Kong, they have to spend more money to buy a house of the same level as before.

Being a fence-sitter, you gain nothing and even suffer some losses.

At this moment, they want to make a difference in real estate. In addition to developing real estate in the north, here in Hong Kong, they are developing the original land and acquiring more land, and selling the developed houses at high prices.

Liu Tao is not interested in land that is too expensive. He is fine with land that is lower priced, but he will not compete for land that is too expensive.

Because he already controls a lot of land.

One of the main impressions that Hong Kong gives people is that it has a small land area and a large population, but in fact, Hong Kong’s total land area reaches 1095 square kilometers, which is 1.5 times the land area of ​​Singapore, which is also one of the four Asian tigers.

The reason why Hong Kong has a situation of limited land and large population is largely because during the nearly 150 years of its rule over Hong Kong, the Hong Kong government has actually only developed about 78 square kilometers of Hong Kong Island and about 50 square kilometers of Kowloon Peninsula.

This 128 square kilometers of land is now home to four million of Hong Kong’s six million people, accounting for 66.67%!

This has naturally long been an unbearable burden, and has also led to a situation where there is a large population and limited land.

As for the remaining nearly 900 square kilometers of land, the utilization rate is very low.

Kowloon and Hong Kong Island have long developed into the most prosperous urban areas in the world, while the situation in the New Territories was originally not much better than that of Pengcheng on the boundary river.

In 1982, the various groups under Panshan Group chose to build factories in Hong Kong in the New Territories, namely Tin Shui Wai and Tung Chun Wai.

This brought new opportunities to the New Territories, and the entire Yuen Long developed rapidly.

In just a few years, the population here exceeded one million.

The value of the land here is rising rapidly.

This place also became the industrial center of Hong Kong.

In 1982, the population of Hong Kong was 526 million, with more than 600 emigrants leaving. But in just a few years, the population has reached million, all of whom are from the mainland.

These one million people injected fresh blood into Hong Kong.

Originally, only factories were being built here, but later, real estate developers who owned land in Yuen Long began to develop residential complexes and shopping malls.

Of course, the biggest moves are the developments by Jardine Matheson, Hutchison Whampoa and others here.

However, unlike those real estate developers who want to sell all the houses at high prices, the real estate companies controlled by Liu Tao sell half of the houses and rent half of them, in order to curb the rapid rise in housing prices.

If it weren’t for such measures, I’m afraid the housing prices in Yuen Long would catch up with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon!
His real estate layout in Hong Kong is very clear, forming a structure of luxury, high-end, medium-end, low-end and rental. Luxury villas in Feng Shui treasure land and reservoirs are only sold to rich people. They have the most luxurious houses, the safest security measures, the best services and the best education.

Good locations and high-end properties are for small bosses, white-collar workers, and executives, and the prices of these houses are not low. Mid-range properties are for white-collar workers and other middle-income groups. Low-end properties are for workers.

The purpose of renting a house is to curb the high housing prices and give others a choice. These houses for rent are mainly apartments, with some suites.

To be honest, Liu Tao couldn't do the thing of keeping his compatriots in captivity like pigs and sucking their blood crazily.

If it weren't for his plan, the housing prices in Hong Kong would probably have already reached skyrocketing levels.

Around five o'clock in the afternoon, Ho Ying-tung arrived here, and the two chose a seafood restaurant in Yuen Long to have dinner together.

The two chatted about the development of Hong Kong, and then talked about business.

This time when Liu Tao came to Hong Kong, in addition to taking a look at the industries here, he also had four things to do.

One is the Hong Kong section of the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway", which is only 34 kilometers long. The original idea was to build 13 stations in Hong Kong, but later it was not suitable, so it was changed to 3 stations, one is the entry station "Luohu Station", one is "University Station", and one is "Kowloon Station"!
So far, the 34-kilometer railway has been barely completed.

The Jiehe Bridge was just completed last month, and this section is not open to traffic yet.

One is the construction of main roads. These newly rebuilt main roads will be the routes for the Hong Kong garrison to enter the port, and they are extremely important.

On ordinary roads, not to mention main battle tanks, even medium tanks can easily damage the road surface.

Only this kind of specially built high-standard road can support the movement of main battle tanks.

The time nodes for these main roads are all before the Spring Festival of 1987.

Some of them have been completed and opened to traffic, but some have not yet been completed.

The third thing is that the Golden Dragon Group will go public in the United States. After the Chinese New Year, Ho Ying-tung and others will go to the United States for a roadshow. This is undoubtedly a big event.

The securities dealers had already reached an agreement, and these capital giants, like sharks smelling star power, came directly to Hong Kong to negotiate.

As for the fourth thing, it is the Hong Kong Metro!
In early 1974, a Japanese consortium signed a letter of intent to undertake the project, but in November of the same year, due to the oil crisis, it became pessimistic about the investment prospects and decided to withdraw, resulting in the suspension of the relevant plan.

1977年7月港府正式批准兴建荃湾线，并于1978年11月开始动工，荃湾线全长约10.5公里，由太子站至荃湾站。路线将地铁版图总长度增至26.1公里，全线有10个车站，包括6个地底车站、1个地面车站及3个高架车站。

On May 1982, 5, the Tsuen Wan Line opened to traffic at a construction cost of HK$10 billion.

This also officially opened the Hong Kong subway era, meaning that Hong Kong now had a subway.

In December 1980, the Hong Kong government officially approved the construction of the Hong Kong Island Line, but the plan was suspended due to the Japanese consortium's decision to withdraw in the cold winter of 12.

Last year, the Hong Kong government sold a lot of land, and Stanley Ho and others began to promote the Hong Kong Island Line. After all, this was a huge project with an investment of over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the profits involved were not small.

Liu Tao naturally also planned to take advantage of this opportunity to get a project for himself.

There is a lot of room for cooperation between the two sides here.

In the end, they even monopolized the subway construction in the whole of Hong Kong.

After all, this matter cannot be allowed to benefit the Japanese consortium. Why should they be allowed to make huge profits?

(End of this chapter)