Chapter 64 Digging into the Western Regions

If you want to visit Tehran alone, go to the currency exchange office in the hotel lobby to exchange some money before going out.Handing in a hundred-dollar bill, I was amazed to get back a wad of Iran's highest denomination notes. Their highest denomination note is 10,000 Rials, with Khomeini's majestic head on it, and now I have eighty-one notes in my hand, which is a total of 810,000 Rials!Remembering that Iraq’s highest denomination banknote is printed with the majestic head of Saddam Hussein, each 250 dinars, we have long been accustomed to distributing them to children begging on the roadside, but after all, that number is far smaller than that of Iran.Standing next to the currency exchange office was a well-mannered old man. He must have been used to the surprised expressions of foreigners when they accepted such a large number, so he joked with me in a deep bass: Mr. is really rich!I said: Yes, I became a millionaire in an instant.

Going shopping with 810,000 in cash, I feel very comfortable.Seeing a waist belt in a small shop, I chose one and asked the price. The boss said 3,000, which I thought was too cheap compared to 810,000, so I quickly pulled out a 10,000-riel note and stuffed it , the boss not only did not change the money, but cheerfully held down my stack of money and drew two more, saying that the real price was 30,000 reals.Why do you say 30,000 as 3,000?It turns out that the common people also think the number is too big in daily use, so they make their own decisions, remove a zero by convention, and call it ten times smaller. It is not called Lille, but Terman.As a result, the market only said Terman, and the bank only said Lear, which was very inconvenient.

This kind of thing, according to our thinking, must be solved and it is easy to solve, but for some reason it has been inconvenient.Differences in national character can be seen everywhere. The most surprising thing about Tehran is the gurgling water along the streets.It flows in a deep and uncovered stone ditch, and pedestrians need to take a bigger step to cross it.The water quality is pure, the water flow is fast, and it comes down from the snow-capped mountains not far away, and Tehran is on the slope, so it is equal to a noisy mountain stream. After all, it is rare to see mountains and streams in a busy city, so you have to look up at the Damavand Mountain in the northeast, which pierces into the sky.A city, surrounded by famous mountains and accompanied by Jixi River, can really be said to be blessed by nature.

However, just next to the gurgling water, Tehran's biggest regret appeared, that is, traffic.There are many cars, but few good ones. They are all fighting for the road. The more they fight, the more crowded they are. It has been jammed for a long time, and there is strong exhaust gas everywhere.This affects the mood very much, and the driver is most likely to collide when he is in a bad mood. Anyway, the traffic jam is fine, so he will get down and fight.The two sides were tightly twisted, inseparable, and the people in the traffic jam on the side were bored, so they jumped out of the car to watch, but no one persuaded them.

If you think about it, if you persuade them to drive away, it will be embarrassing for the two of them to be stuck in traffic side by side. Therefore, people understand that only when the traffic starts to move, will it be nothing. There are so many taxis in the traffic that, oddly enough, they can be greatly overloaded.The seat next to the driver was crowded with two fat men, and there were two more people sitting on other people's laps in the row behind, sitting still. The traffic problem in Tehran has always been serious. With a population of 12 million, it is already a lot, but because there are few high-rise buildings, the city is very large, almost twice that of Beijing. No one can live without a car, and the citizens have already complained.We made up our mind to build the subway more than ten years ago, and some earthworks have already been dug out of the ground. During the Iran-Iraq War, it became an air-raid shelter. After the war, everyone missed it again, so they continued to work, but the progress was extremely slow.

Finally, some citizens posted a cartoon, depicting the Persian patriarch Cyrus the Great who died 2,500 years ago, sending an oracle from the mausoleum: When will the subway in Tehran be completed?Even his old man was impatient to wait. The government was under heavy pressure and decided to call for international tenders.The winning bidder was none other than China.The engineering team has been here for two years and is under intense construction. I really hope that after the completion of the subway, Tehran can reproduce its relaxed and leisurely style.Crowded and cramped, it is easy to lead to irritability and extremes.In fact, the Persian nation should be very generous.

Tehran’s current dilemma is a common problem faced by many eastern cities: No matter how long the history is or how beautiful the scenery is, everything will lose its taste when it is noisy and crowded.Therefore, the fate of modernization must first enter this alley and then exit this alley. The most interesting thing here is that China, which is already noisy and crowded, has freed up its hands to help others solve this problem.At first glance, it is confusing, but it makes sense when you think about it carefully, because we have at least accumulated a lot of experience in relieving noisy and crowded places with shortcuts, both positive and negative, which is equivalent to becoming a good doctor after a long illness.

After shopping and returning to the hotel, I met a tall Chinese young man in the lobby. He was Zhou Zhiwei, the general representative of CITIC Corporation in charge of the Tehran subway project.He knew about our arrival from TV, specially invited us to visit the construction site, and appointed me to give a speech. So, we soon entered a Chinese world again.I was excited when I saw the Chinese characters on the wall, not to mention the long-lost scent of Chinese food as soon as I entered the courtyard.Pretend not to smell it, and shake hands warmly and solemnly.I couldn't refuse the speech, so I introduced interesting stories about the exchanges between China and Iran in history to the engineers and technicians.Finally, I said that in the past, Chinese history books described the feat of opening up the Western Regions as digging through the Western Regions or hollowing out the Western Regions, but you really dug through the ground.When the drilling is done, their Cyrus will be happy, and so will our Zhang Qian.

The Iranians call China Qin, and I have already drawn up the second edict of Cyrus the Great: People from the Qin Dynasty in the east, live well! Zhang Qian replied humbly: each other. November 23, 1999, Tehran, overnight at Laleh Hotel