Chapter 857 A Festival for Two People

This time Fan Wubing came to Shanghai and met a lot of people.

Seeing that Christmas has arrived and New Year's Day is coming soon, the atmosphere here is also very intense. Due to the exaggeration of the doomsday legend of 1999 and the unpredictable expectations for the future of the new millennium, there are even some events that have just passed. The impact of the Southeast Asian financial crisis has made many young people even more confused about the unpredictability of the future.

Under such circumstances, where to go in the future is always the most worrying thing, because as a heavily westernized Shanghai, there are indeed many young people who are accustomed to using Christmas and Spring Festival to vent their emotions.

Fan Wubing originally didn't have much interest in this kind of thing, but Shen Ying spent a lot of time overseas, especially in Europe where he spent several years traveling and studying, so he was more interested in this kind of Western festival. He was interested and insisted on dragging him to listen to the Christmas bells.

"What's so good about this thing?" Fan Wubing was pulled by Shen Ying and drove his Bugatti and Xulong sports car to the outside of one of the most famous Catholic churches near Xujiahui and parked there.

Xujiahui Catholic Church is a medieval Gothic building with a long cross shape in plan, facing east, with bell towers on both sides, towering into the sky.

At this time, many sparkling lights had been decorated outside the church wall. There were also many church members or young men and women who came here with their friends to join in the fun. It was very lively.

Xujiahui Catholic Church is the first Catholic church in Shanghai after the Opium War. The church has 64 pillars carved from Jinshan stone produced in Suzhou, and each pillar is composed of ten small columns. The floor is paved with square tiles, and a passage in the middle is paved with patterned tiles. The doors and windows are all Gothic pointed arch style, inlaid with stained glass, inlaid with patterns and statues of gods.

There are nineteen altars in the church. The large altar in the middle was shipped from Paris on Easter 1919. It has high religious and artistic value. The church can accommodate 2,500 people for Mass at the same time.

The appearance of the church is a typical European medieval Gothic, with a double-spire masonry structure. The ridge is 18 meters high. The total height of the bell tower is about 60 meters. The two crosses on the spire reach into the sky. There is also a cross on the church body, which looks a bit like the shape of a roulette wheel, which means that life is like driving a roulette wheel.

In the center of the hall is a disk-shaped relief, which is complex and gorgeous. It looks like a Roman clock from a distance. The external structure is made of red bricks. The roof is paved with beryllium graphite tiles and decorated with many stone carvings of the Son and God. It is pure and peaceful.

During the Cultural Revolution, the Xujiahui Catholic Church was severely damaged. Even the two spiers of the cross and the large organ were removed. The church was used as a warehouse and religious activities were interrupted. It was not until Christmas of 1982 that the spire cross was restored and the Gothic style of the farmhouse was restored.

“Churches in Shanghai,

I'm afraid there are hundreds of them, right? "Fan Wubing vaguely remembered seeing relevant introductions somewhere, so he said something to Shen Ying who got out of the car.

"Probably, I don't know very well. It should be there." Shen Ying was not very sure either.

Kill Chu.

Churches in Shanghai appeared very early. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi collaborated with Western Catholic missionaries to study astronomy, and collaborated with Italian missionary Matteo Ricci to translate "Elements of Geometry". Later he was baptized in Nanjing and became a Catholic.

Later, Xu Guangqi returned to Shanghai to observe the system. Because he was the most famous person in Shanghai at that time, the number of Catholics in Shanghai increased with Xu Guangqi. In the early years of the Apocalypse, believers in Shanghai built a Catholic church near Xu Guangqi's residence. Later, the emperor gave a plaque to hang on the church.

However, during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, there was a trend of extermination of religions, and it was not until the Opium War that these churches were forced to be restored.

After that, the trend of building churches could not be resisted. Churches of various denominations were constantly built. There were more and more missionaries in Shanghai, making it the largest base of foreign religions in China.

"Have you ever thought of giving me a Christmas gift?" Shen Ying suddenly asked Fan Wubing, who was leaning on the car.

"Huh?" Fan Wubing scratched his head, thinking that he had been busy recently, but he had forgotten about this matter.

Regarding Shen Ying, he was naturally embarrassed to say confidently, "I never celebrate foreigners' holidays, so naturally I won't prepare any egg gifts. In fact, in the early years, the two of them didn't spend Christmas together. If he had just perfunctory If so, I'm afraid it will only make her sad.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't think about this. There have been too many things recently, which have filled my head with all kinds of distracting thoughts." Fan Wubing said to Shen Ying very apologetically.

"Fortunately, at least you didn't use irresponsible words to deal with me." Shen Ying didn't seem to be very angry, she just smiled and said, "Actually, I also know that you have been busy with big things recently.

Fan Wubing held Shen Ying in his arms apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, actually, for me, you are my most precious asset. Without you, I would have no reason to run around for other things." ”

"Please tell me whether it's good or not to be fresh. This kind of emphasis has been overused by Hong Kong and Taiwan." Shen Ying made an unbearable apology, and then got angry. , said with some memories, "During those years in Germany, every year in late autumn, before the leaves of the oak tree behind the yard where I lived had even fallen, invitations and greeting cards for Christmas parties would come in one after another. I am not a Christian, nor do I believe in the Savior. , but my classmates are very enthusiastic about this matter. Regardless of whether they believe in Jesus or not, as long as they live in the West, Christmas is not only a religious celebration, but also a festival for family reunion. When I see the greetings of peace and goodwill on the Christmas cards, I think of our Spring Festival couplets, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the family is reunited. "

Fan Wubing nodded. Although he does not know this kind of imported festival, it does not mean that he is not aware of this purely festive consumption that has gradually begun to spread across the continent.

Nowadays, as China gradually moves towards the world, various imported products and imported festivals have become popular. In addition to some changes in beliefs, more cities have provided immeasurable business opportunities for operators.

Christmas without gifts cannot be called Christmas. Santa Claus drives his sleigh to deliver gifts to children, and relatives and friends exchange gifts. This is a way to convey love.

Fan Wubing still remembers that when he was a child, when he received lucky gifts every Spring Festival, he always wondered whether his parents, who had worked hard for a year, would also receive gifts? Fortunately, after Fan Wubing was reborn, the Fan family never suffered from lack of material advantages. On the contrary, every year during the Chinese New Year and holidays, the Fan family's tradition is to allocate some targeted funds to help those who are most in need.

This way of thinking that is upright and considerate of the world has also given the Fan family a good reputation. Just like in the past, what the elder sister Fan Ting liked to do most was to extort some benefits from her extremely wealthy brother Fan Wubing. However, her contribution to education or other public welfare undertakings will definitely make the so-called top ten richest Chinese people stunned.

The activities at the church had not started yet, so Fan Wubing and Shen Ying walked hand in hand on the pedestrian street, looking at the shops on both sides with lights on. Many shops had Christmas trees outside with lights on them. Twinkle. It is not uncommon to see salespeople dressed as Santa Claus appearing, handing out small gifts to passers-by, or engaging in some promotional activities, which is very lively.

Among passers-by, you can also see many foreigners of all kinds, some walking alone, some gathering together, and they all look very happy.

In recent years, China, which has gradually become affluent, has become one of the most popular countries for foreigners. Whether they work at home or abroad, many people like to go on business trips to the mainland before Christmas, so that they can buy gifts easily. Save worry, effort, time and money. After all, the price-performance ratio of mainland products is so favorable that it attracts countless foreigners.

When the two of them passed by a very exquisitely decorated boutique, they found that although there were not many customers, most of them were foreigners. After looking carefully through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, they realized that this was a silk underwear store. shop.

For more than two thousand years, Chinese silk has been regarded as high-quality by the West. There was even a period when silk was equivalent to gold. Silk is still very popular today: 8-weight and gorgeous silk nightgowns for men, sexy and smooth silk underwear for women, are indeed very popular.

The period around Christmas can be said to be the Olympics for consumers. The profits they bring to merchants are usually 20% of the annual profits, and some are even as high as 40%.

For example, this year's Christmas consumption in the UK is expected to be 10 billion pounds, equivalent to 260 billion yuan, which is a considerable amount.

According to figures obtained by the intelligence research department of Fan Investment Group, the output value of Christmas trees and other gifts exported overseas by the mainland alone this year has exceeded one billion US dollars, and this number is still rising.

The two people walked in and took a closer look, only to realize that this store actually sells authentic Suzhou silk. However, the overall packaging of the store is in a European style that is more suitable for foreigners' tastes. It looks a bit special. .

"Okay, let me give you a set of silk underwear!" Fan Wubing suddenly saw a set of silk underwear worn by the model opposite, and said to Shen Ying very excitedly.

"Rogue Ten" Shen Ying took one look at the set of underwear and immediately said with a little blush.

It should be said that the workmanship and texture of that set of silk underwear are of high quality, but the shape is a bit special. After all, some underwear designs to increase the fun in bed are not only very popular in Japan at this time, but are also openly sold in China. The situation is still very rare.

Fan Wu was very interested. I started to think about it in my mind, how many sets should I buy?