"Boss, it seemed like the sky in Beidou was lower than the one back home, right?"
In the moving Audi, besides Miao Ying, who had spent a fair amount of time in Beidou before, it was the first visit for the other two girls to the city. As they drove into the urban area, they leaned against the window, gazing out.
Upon hearing Yun Lan’s question, Zhou Wang glanced and casually replied, "In the north, the sky generally appears lower than in the south. This is related to latitude, temperature, air pressure, clouds, and so on..."
"Wow, Boss, you know so much!"
Yun Lan looked instantly full of admiration.
But Zhou Wang felt no ripples in his heart. After all, the three girls sitting in the backseat could combine their education to muster only one high school diploma and one vocational school diploma, acting knowledgeable in front of them gave him no real sense of accomplishment.
"Read more books, and you can learn these things too."
Zhou Wang responded and then lowered the window to start observing the scenery along the way.
As far as he could remember, this was also his first time visiting a super first-tier city. Zhou Wang was still very much looking forward to it.
Starting from the South Fifth Ring, besides the predictably towering skyscrapers everywhere, Zhou Wang’s biggest impression was how many parks Beidou had.
Drinking Deer Pond Park, Citizen Park, Old Palace City Forest Park... After not driving far, they had already passed three parks.
After driving a bit further, two parks appeared on either side of the road simultaneously, the World Flower Park on the left and Wangxing Lake Park on the right.
"Beidou’s initial planning was to create a ’City of a Thousand Parks,’ which also related to previous land cleanups, removing illegal constructions. It allowed the reasonable use of land resources while meeting the leisure needs of the citizens, truly a win-win," said the driver with a smile, responding to Zhou Wang’s musings.
Zhou Wang glanced aside, having to admire that family background drivers seemed naturally knowledgeable. Could this be the average quality of Beidou people?
After all, it was in the imperial city.
Soon, the car passed the famous Temple of Heaven Park, marking the point where they entered the core region of Beidou.
Passing Ciqi Gate, Chongwen Gate, Zhou Wang’s most notable impression was Beidou’s stellar road planning. Almost everything he saw, big roads or small, was square and extremely smooth.
From another perspective, in this city, as long as you can distinguish the basic cardinal directions, you’d find it hard to get lost.
Just as Zhou Wang was internally praising Beidou’s traffic construction, they hit a traffic jam.
On the street inside Chongwen Gate, near the direction of Dongdan, the Audi was stuck in an endless sea of cars, unable to move.
Previously Zhou Wang hadn’t understood why some cities needed traffic restrictions; now he got it... Even with restrictions, it was this jam-packed. Without them, he imagined it would almost be impossible to move.
Fortunately, as it was the first time in the city, even the traffic jam held its own charm; Zhou Wang wasn’t impatient, just watching the bustling streets, even pulling out his phone to take random photos.
However, he didn’t post on social media, as he hadn’t told his senior about his trip to Beidou. He intended to surprise her.
...
With stops and starts for about another forty minutes, the vehicle passed Wangfujing, turned into Goldfish Alley, and soon entered a small road.
As the car slowed down, Zhou Wang knew they had arrived at their destination. He looked up to see the sign of the hotel where they would be staying—
"Waldorf Courtyard Hotel, Beidou."
This hotel, rated as "five-star," self-styled as "six-star luxury," belonged to the renowned international hotel management company Hilton Group and was selected for the 2024 Best Hotels Huaxia Hotel List.
As the name suggested, the essence of this hotel embodied Beidou’s historical culture. Some suites in the hotel retained the characteristics of Beidou’s hutong courtyard, making it perfect for "rustic outsiders" like Zhou Wang to stay and directly experience the most authentic features of Beidou.
Naturally, the hotel belonged to Ding Yi. Zhou Wang didn’t think much after telling her before coming, knowing with her savvy, there was no need to worry about such things.
As Zhou Wang expected, Ding Yi didn’t abruptly invite him to stay at her place directly. Such an arrangement evidently made Zhou Wang more comfortable.
Once Zhou Wang and his companions arrived at the entrance hall, a concierge immediately came to greet them.
"Mr. Zhou, Miss has already booked a room for you. Just give your name, settle down first; once Miss finishes her business, she will come to find you."
After the group got out of the car, the driver smiled and said to Zhou Wang and then drove the Audi away.
And once Zhou Wang provided his name, the concierge first led them to the VIP lounge in the lobby to check in. Soon, a young man with a courteous smile came forward quickly to greet Zhou Wang respectfully,
"Hello Mr. Zhou, I am your personal butler during your stay at the Waldorf Courtyard Hotel. You can call me Xiao Dai, or Dave, and of course, you can replace me anytime if you want, I can show you the roster if you need..."
"No need, you’ll do."
Zhou Wang was momentarily taken aback, then shook his head with a smile.
Previously, whenever he stayed at five-star hotels, his personal butlers were always female, but rest assured, it wasn’t intentional. He liked to go with the flow and wasn’t picky about gender.