Chapter 446: Light-Hearted Huating Road and the Mysterious Visitor
The two parties have initially agreed to have five directors on the new board of directors of Beijing Panda Systems Co., Ltd., namely Academician Ni, Academician Wang, Professor Wang Qinsheng, President of Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC, Li Xiaofan and Dr. Pan Zhanlong.
Under Li Xiaofan's strong suggestion, it was recommended that Academician Ni serve as chairman and Professor Wang Qinsheng continue to serve as president of the new company during the transition period.
China is satisfied with the ratio of personnel and seats on the board of directors.
The two academicians plus Professor Wang Qinsheng have a total of 3 seats, while Li Xiaofan and Dr. Pan Zhanlong from Singapore only have 2 seats, 3 to 2, and Academician Ni serves as the chairman. On the surface, it seems that the new Beijing Panda Systems Co., Ltd. is still firmly in control. In Chinese hands.
Li Xiaofan is also satisfied with this arrangement. With Academician Ni as the chairman, he can plan the entire "Chinese Core" project systematically and holistically.
He is not worried at all that the situation will get out of control in the future, because he has the same idea as Academician Ni and Academician Wang, two senior Mingzhou students.
During this period, Li Xiaofan was afraid that the morale of the Panda EDA project team at BIDC would be unstable and lead to brain drain. Through Dr. Jiang Lixin, he released a message in advance to his old colleagues at BIDC at Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center:
The new salary package of Beijing Panda Systems Co., Ltd. will be no less than that of employees of the three US-owned EDA giants such as Synopsys, Cadence and Mentor Graphics in mainland companies, and the next step will be based on the practices of Pacific Network Technology Co., Ltd. listed on Nasdaq. Implement the employee stock ownership plan, and the future goal is to be listed on domestic or overseas capital markets...
The news released by Li Xiaofan through Dr. Jiang Lixin was like dropping a bomb in the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC!
Previously, the country invested a lot of financial and manpower, spending almost a full 100 million yuan, mobilizing 17 units across the country and more than 200 experts to jointly tackle key problems, and finally released the domestic Panda EDA system six years ago.
The domestic Panda EDA system has been popular in the country for a while.
However, now the three US-owned EDA giants such as Synopsys, Cadence and Mentor Graphics are swarming into the country, using more mature technologies and dumping them in the Chinese market at ultra-low prices.
The market for domestic Panda EDA systems is shrinking day by day, the prospects seem bleak, and many talents are beginning to lose. Dr. Yu Zhiping from Tsinghua University who went to the United States, Liu Weiping from Fudan University went to Silicon Valley to found Stanza, and Dr. Jiang Lixin came to Lianhai Microelectronics...
Coupled with the income distribution mechanism of state-owned enterprises at that time, internal staff were not very motivated.
The same software engineer's income working in a foreign company in Beijing is at least three times that of a state-owned enterprise.
In their previous life, they struggled for three buckets of rice. Later, many of the technical backbones who were involved in the development of the domestic Panda EDA system at the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC either went abroad or left BIDC to work for foreign giants such as Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor Graphics.
In the previous life, a vicious cycle was formed in this way, with market shrinking - military morale unstable - brain drain - and the market shrinking even more, leading to the failure of the domestic Panda EDA system...
Therefore, the news delivered by old colleague Jiang Lixin is really like a powerful bomb dropped in the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC!
Everyone is gearing up and wants to sign up for the newly established Sino-foreign joint venture Beijing Panda Systems Co., Ltd. in the future.
…
After the Panda EDA system joint venture cooperation proposal is completed, because the Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Center BIDC is a ministry-affiliated enterprise, this plan will not be formally implemented until it is discussed and approved at the ministry meeting of the Ministry of Electronic Industry to be held at the end of the month.
Later, Li Xiaofan flew to Shanghai with Academician Ni and Yang Feiyan to handle some official business of Donghai Technology Investment Company and Lianhai Microelectronics Design Center.
In Shanghai in late August, the weather here is still very hot and muggy, unlike the cool Italian cities.
The clothes Li Xiaofan brought with him were all formal suits and shirts. He originally planned to let Yang Feiyan accompany him to Nanjing Road or Huaihai Road to buy some casual T-shirts and beach pants the next weekend.
"Xiaofan, why don't I accompany you to go shopping on Huating Road tomorrow? The clothes there are very fashionable and the prices are relatively affordable. It's the favorite of girls like us..." Yang Feiyan suggested.
"Hey, Feiyan, your suggestion is good. I haven't been to Huating Road for a long time!"
Li Xiaofan's inner thoughts: At the end of 2000 in his previous life, all the Shanghai Huating Road Clothing Street was moved to Xiangyang Road. Based on this calculation and the rebirth, it has been 22 years since I have been to the Huating Road Clothing Market that I once dreamed of.
Today's Huating Road is known as "China's No. 1 Clothing Street".
Huating Road is located in a prime area of Shanghai, one step away from the bustling Huaihai Road, but without the bustle and hustle and bustle of the downtown area. It is what old Shanghai calls the "upper corner".
On both sides of the road are various types of connected garden houses. Some of them are grand and have open-air cement steps, which are connected to the large terrace at the entrance of the main hall on the second floor. At a glance, you can tell that they are from wealthy or noble families.
In the early 1980s, the tranquility here was suddenly broken. Nearly a hundred clothing stalls from Zhaojiabang Road and Wuyuan Road in Xujiahui were moved to Huating Road, and Shanghai's first individual clothing market was established. The quiet small road suddenly became lively. extraordinary.
There are more than 400 clothing stalls on the nearly 800-meter-long Huating Road, and about 100,000 visitors flock to it every day.
There are white-collar workers, college students, tourists from other places, and many foreigners who come here to buy cheap "branded goods".
Many foreign tour groups come to Shanghai, and they don't go to the Bund and Chenghuang Temple, but specifically ask to go to Huating Road first, which shows its popularity.
In the 1990s, this small road Huating Road always led the fashion trend of Shanghai. Some of the clothes here are the surplus products of the processing of exported brand-name clothing, and some are imitations of the latest international fashions. The popular styles in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States will be copied and appear on Huating Road a few months later. Suspender tops, cultural shirts, hot pants, overalls, platform shoes... countless fashion trends spread from here to the streets and alleys of Shanghai.
In the summer of 1996, I don’t know if it was because of the return of Hong Kong and Hong Kong, but the girls in Shanghai were so light-hearted. Li Xiaofan found that the most popular brand in Shanghai was DKNY. Such a young brand from New York was actually the king.
Yang Feiyan said that those Shanghai girls dreamed of going to the DKNY flagship store in Hong Kong, sitting at the white plastic round table under the big white umbrella, and looking at the black and white colors was satisfying.
At present, a big brand like PRADA seems to have just been known by people in Shanghai. It is said that it was driven by Taiwanese and foreigners.
After seeing the demand, the clothing factories in the mainland began to imitate PRADA bags in large quantities.
At present, PRADA black bags with Oxford fabric can be seen everywhere in Huating Road. A wallet costs 10 yuan, a backpack costs 100 yuan, and you can bargain if you buy a lot.
Yang Feiyan said that Taiwanese people especially love these A-grade goods, and then match them with thousands of belts from the Meimei Department Store next door, making it difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake. And those foreigners are even more crazy about buying them.
The most popular jeans on Huating Road are Levi’s 501. The Meimei Department Store next door sells them for more than 800 yuan each, while the high-quality imitations here only sell for 100 yuan each.
These high-quality imitations look exactly the same as the genuine ones in Meimei Department Store, even the labels and colors are exactly the same. But Li Xiaofan knows that after wearing and washing them several times, the inferior quality of the imitations will immediately show up...
But in 1996, when the monthly salary was only a thousand yuan, which Shanghai woman didn’t have a complex about Huating Road?
After buying a few T-shirts and beach pants on Huating Road with Yang Feiyan, Li Xiaofan received a visit from an old friend in the old villa on Wukang Road in the afternoon.
This old friend is Lin Zhiyong, a good friend from junior high school.
As soon as he entered the gate of the old villa, Lin Zhiyong exclaimed:
"Wow, brother, you are rich now! Where did you find such an elegant place? It must have been the house of a big capitalist or a big landlord. It is so big, it must have cost a lot of money, right?"
"Haha, this is indeed the old house of a big capitalist, and it is from our Mingzhou..."
After entering the hall of the villa, Lin Zhiyong exclaimed again: "Fei Yan, why are you here too? Are we having a reunion of junior high school classmates today?"
Lin Feiyan laughed: "Haha, Zhiyong, long time no see, I am now Mr. Li's subordinate, working for Mr. Li!"
"Oh, Brother Fan, you are awesome, you actually recruited the school beauty in our class to work under you!"
Lin Zhiyong only knew that Li Xiaofan made a lot of money by reselling sunglasses and doing foreign trade, and didn't know what specific business Li Xiaofan was doing later, and what listed companies he had in the United States.
After Lin Zhiyong and Yang Feiyan exchanged a few pleasantries, Li Xiaofan took Lin Zhiyong into his office and closed the door.
Lin Feiyan was a little puzzled. Usually, Li Xiaofan's office door was rarely closed. Why did he close the door today when Lin Zhiyong came? What were the two of them doing in secret?