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Chapter 311 People’s Thoughts Change
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Anyone familiar with Western University’s history knows that this is not only the largest city in Pennsylvania, but it was also the capital of Western University. The world-famous Declaration of Independence was signed here.

However, due to various political and strategic considerations, more than ten years after becoming the capital, its status as a political center was replaced by Washington, D.C.

However, Philadelphia did have a period of glory. It was once one of the most important industrial cities in the West.

The rise of the textile and machinery manufacturing industries made Philadelphia the most important economic engine in the West and East.

It also nurtured the world-renowned University of Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, after entering the new century, under the influence of progressive ideas, this once great city eventually declined.

In fact, Philadelphia can be seen as a microcosm of the entire Western Conference. It once reached the peak, and then fell.

It's just that the industry is declining too quickly, making the decline here look more obvious.

Fishtown is called a town, but it is actually different from the concept of Huaxia Town. It is a community called Fishtown.

Located in the northeastern part of Philadelphia, about three kilometers away from the city center, this place was once a recognized low-income community, but when West University and East University signed an agreement, countless Chinese people flocked here, and it became different.

First, all the roads were renovated, making the transportation connection between here and the city center extremely convenient, which is especially suitable for temporary residence for people working in the city center.

At the same time, the massive urban renewal project started here. Yes, three years ago, Fishtown was one of the first urban renewal sites, and most of the original houses here were expropriated.

However, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the old city renovation, the conditions offered by the Xida government were still very good.

Not only will the full cost of accommodation for the indigenous people during the renovation period be covered, but once the renovation is completed, the indigenous people will be given houses with larger living areas than before.

There are several sets and several sets...

The locals felt very satisfied, but when the news spread to China, many ordinary Chinese people felt indignant for these ordinary people in Xida.

Well, for Chinese people who have heard too many stories of getting rich through demolition, the subsidies from Xida are still a bit lacking.

Shouldn't it be a basic operation to demolish one house and replace it with another? And no one mentioned the transition costs during the period? No one mentioned the inconvenience caused by solving the temporary housing problem. Isn't this just cheating honest people?

And all the land of Xida University is ours!

But for the indigenous people here, this condition is really good. Most importantly, the official of Xida has also promised that the indigenous people here can be completely exempted from property tax before returning the house.

For the lower-income people who previously lived here, this offer is actually quite tempting.

This means that no matter how long the old city renovation lasts, at least during this period they don’t have to worry about being homeless because they cannot pay the property taxes.

It is said that the Chinese have also promised to build two high-quality schools and at least one high-quality park here. In addition, two highways leading to the city center will be renovated...

Anyone who is not stupid knows that once the old city renovation is completed, the value of this place will rise directly.

So although some Chinese netizens felt sorry for the people here, the contract was signed smoothly at the time. Almost no one obstructed...

Of course, there may have been some people who obstructed it, but it was just downplayed and suppressed.

After all, for those in the White House, this decision can be said to be a gamble on their entire political future and future political legacy.

No matter how crazy he was, it was impossible for such a small matter to cause problems in the first project. After dealing with them for so many years, he was already familiar with Hua Xia's style of doing things.

I may trust you the first time, but if you get cheated this time, I won’t be so easy to talk to next time.

So they were really attentive at the time, and all the major federal law enforcement agencies sent people to keep an eye on it.

Of course, this is the first time that China has created such a big scene in Xi’an University, so naturally they are holding their breath to get this done!

It's not just for face, but also for the subsequent infrastructure business negotiations between more than 40 states and other developed countries.

The construction company was instructed to open up the market even if the first order was not profitable.

So the so-called old city renovation has almost become the reconstruction of the old city. Countless engineering machines and employees who get up early and work late work hard on this land every day.

The renovation was originally scheduled to take three years to complete, but all projects were completed in just two years, and Fishtown has been completely transformed.

In order to take into account the living habits of the indigenous people, even a community is divided into central and peripheral areas.

The high-rise buildings in the central area echo the surrounding large-scale villa communities. Coupled with the wide and brand-new roads, the road green belt system unique to China, and the brand-new schools, this previously low-income town has been upgraded to a very standard middle- and high-income community.

In this community alone, housing prices have at least doubled in this year.

A few aborigines chose to sell their houses and move away after the reconstruction. The high house price increase made it impossible for them to afford the property tax they had to pay every year.

But more aboriginals stayed. It was not because they had high incomes before, but because of the renovation of the old city in recent years, as long as they were not too rigid and willing to endure a little hardship, they could really change their class.

This was the case with John’s family.

Richard John, who was barely living on welfare, found a job as a laborer on a construction site. The initial salary was not too much, but he had to work ten hours or even longer a day and six days a week. Fortunately, he would be paid overtime for working overtime for more than eight hours and on weekends.

This way they can earn about $2000 a week. Moreover, the construction site pays these unregistered local workers directly in cash.

The downside is that he doesn't get insurance, but the upside is that he doesn't have to pay taxes. But this money is already much better than before. At least it can allow a family of five to live a life without worries about food and clothing.

Especially since the Xi’an University government solved his housing problem during this period and he did not need to pay property tax.

In short, seeing that his life was getting better, Richard John worked harder and more diligently.

A year later, he was spotted by a small foreman sent from China. Since he had some basic welding skills, he was given a formal contract.

The salary of technical workers has naturally increased. If you don't work overtime, you can earn 2000 per week. If you are willing to work overtime, you can earn more. After signing a formal contract, you will also have a good insurance. Although this means that he has to start paying taxes, having a stable job with good income and good insurance also means that John's family has entered the threshold of the middle class from low-income earners.

After the renovation of the old city was completed, they moved into their new home. Now that Richard John had the confidence he needed and could afford the property taxes for the new house, it was natural for him to stay here.

Yes, after the renovation of the old city was completed, Richard did not lose his job. In fact, he now has more jobs. There are still many places in Philadelphia that need to be built.

Even if Philadelphia is remodeled, there is still the whole state of Pennsylvania! The benefits of a large area with a small population are extremely obvious when the economy begins to recover.

The most important thing is that, as model projects, the two public schools in New Fish Town now have very good teaching environments, and are said to have introduced some of China’s elite teaching concepts. The teachers are the best of the best, and half of them are specially hired from China.

This is already the best school district for the middle class in Philadelphia. All education is free, except for books, which you still have to pay for. The school calls this knowledge payment.

Now two of Richard John's children are in elementary school and one is in junior high school.

What he was most proud of was his eldest son. He had just finished the final exam and ranked sixth in the grade, winning the honor of outstanding student at the school level. Not only that, the school stipulated that the top ten students in the grade could be exempted from textbook fees and club activity fees, all of which would be borne by the school.

Yes, under the deliberate guidance of teachers, the new school no longer evaluates a person's excellence based on his or her sports performance, but instead looks at his or her academic performance. Students with good academic performance will even be given separate classes.

The various awards of the school are also evaluated based on grades. And according to the latest regulations, although the situation outside the state has not been determined, the role of recommendation letters for in-state universities, such as the University of Pennsylvania, has been reduced, and the focus is still on SAT and ACT scores.

The SAT will be the threshold for admission to universities in the state. If the score does not meet the standard, no matter how excellent you are in other aspects, you will not be eligible to take the entrance examination.

Only when your SAT scores meet the requirements are you eligible to take the entrance exams organized by various universities, which is roughly equivalent to the Chinese college entrance examination.

Richard John originally thought that it would be difficult for the children to adapt to this change, but what he didn't expect was that his children adapted quite quickly.

Especially his oldest son, Thomas John.

Although the name is very common, Richard John thinks his eldest son may become a great scientist in the future. This is also what his eldest son's classroom teacher said when talking to him.

In the original words of the classroom teacher, Thomas has the potential to become a scientist like Professor Joe.

The name Huaxia was a little difficult to pronounce, he knew it but didn't pronounce it very well. Unlike his eldest son, who scored 92 points in the Chinese midterm exam - the highest score in the grade.

At the parent-teacher meeting today, the teacher once again specifically praised Thomas, which made Richard feel very happy.

I was happy, so today's dinner was particularly sumptuous. There were six plates of exquisite dishes on the table. These were specially packed from a Chinese restaurant near the community.

Now the whole community is eating this kind of specially cooked food. The Chinese always have a way to cook ordinary ingredients into delicious dishes, and they are not particularly expensive.

At least with Richard's income, he can always afford to eat there a few times a month. It is much cheaper than the nearby French restaurants and has more flavors.

As usual, after thanking the Lord for providing the family with food, the little ones quickly started to eat.

Richard and his wife happily watched the children devour the food, and then ate the food slowly and leisurely. Their chopsticks were not as good as those of the three little ones at home.

So I eat slower than the children.

It is also a consensus among many people in Fishtown that Chinese food should be eaten with chopsticks. This is a more civilized way of eating.

"Dad, can I sleep later today?" Just as Richard was enjoying the warm family atmosphere, his eldest son Thomas suddenly made a request.

"Can I ask why, kid? Although tomorrow is Saturday, I know that the competition class also has classes on Saturday." Richard looked at Thomas and asked gently.

It's not a request that's outrageous, just an occasional late night. If there's a suitable reason, he'll agree.

When he was Thomas' age, he wasn't so outstanding, so he could understand why he wanted to go out and have a party with his classmates on the weekend.

Besides, the security situation in Fishtown is very good now, so he doesn't need to worry about anything.

"Huaxia will broadcast the manned moon landing live to the world at 9 o'clock tonight. I want to watch it. And our teacher said that Professor Qiao Yu is one of the hosts of the manned moon landing. Maybe we will interview him during the live broadcast."

Thomas said excitedly.

Not to go out for fun? Richard was a little surprised, but soon nodded and said, "Okay, but not later than twelve o'clock."

"Thank you, Dad!" Thomas said excitedly.

Richard shook his head slightly.

He knew that Thomas regarded Qiao Yu as his idol, but he never expected that Thomas liked Qiao Yu so much.

He was even excited to see it on TV, which made him feel a little weird.

But Richard didn't think much about it, he didn't understand so many big principles. If he had many prejudices against the Chinese before, he no longer thought so now, and even thought that the Chinese were pretty good.

After all, the arrival of the Chinese really changed his life and allowed him to live with more dignity.

"Don't thank me, you deserve it. And your reasons are valid! Come on, be a scientist in the future."

Richard gave them some encouragement, and the three little ones excitedly started discussing the topic of manned moon landing.

"Brother, the moon you just mentioned is the moon we can see every night?"

"Of course, it's the moon. The teacher said it's 300,000 kilometers away from the earth, so it would be very cool to be able to go there! But this time it's different. For the first time, humans will build a scientific research base on it! This is the beginning of human civilization's march into the universe!"

"Human civilization? Why not Chinese civilization?"

"Because my teacher told me that Professor Qiao Yu said that the entire earth is a community with a shared future. We all live on the same land and are essentially the same. The earth's civilization was created by us together..."

(End of this chapter)