South America is a place with many scenic attractions, and there are many, many people who travel to South America every year.When you arrive in South America, one of the places you have to visit is Iguazu Falls.As one of the three largest waterfalls in the world, Iguazu Falls has long become a card of South America, with more than 2 million tourists coming here every year to enjoy the waterfalls.Yang Jing had previously admired Niagara Falls, one of the world's three largest waterfalls, but he had never seen the other two waterfalls, Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.Victoria Falls is far away in Africa, and when you can go there depends on the situation.But Iguazu Falls is on the edge of Paraguay, less than 300 kilometers away from Asunción, compared to thousands of miles away in China, it is almost equivalent to standing at the door of Iguazu Falls.If you don't go over and take a look, you'll be really sorry for yourself.Gege had been to many of the world's most scenic spots before, but she had never seen Iguazu Falls, so she was happy to see the widest waterfall in the world.The boss and the hostess both wanted to go, but these bodyguards naturally didn't say anything.Just go.From Asunción to Iguazu Falls, you don't even need to take a plane, and the 300-kilometer journey is not even enough to climb the plane to descend before it can climb to the flight altitude.Therefore, Yang Jing and the others decided to drive to Dongfang City, enjoying the scenery of the tropical rainforest on the way.The car rental service in the small town of Ita is still relatively prosperous, and Chris and his family rented four silver-white Mercedes-Benz big Gs without much effort.Drive out of the small town of Ita, take Highway 1, then head east to Paraguari, then northeast onto Highway 2, then to Colonel Orvieto onto Highway 7, then east to Orientale City.For a distance of more than 300 kilometers, Yang Jing and the others drove in less than six hours.Of course, this is in Paraguay, and it's pretty good to have such a road in the rainforest that can reach speeds of sixty or seventy kilometers per hour.If it is in Huaxia, 300 kilometers of high-speed is three hours, but the road condition of this road is not bad, but this road is very similar to Huaxia 20 years ago, there are many toll stations and toll sections, which makes Yang Jing and them very annoyed.You said that you are not a highway, what do you charge, you are really poor!
When I was about to arrive at Dongfang City, there was a sudden downpour in the sky, and the rain was so heavy that even the wipers on the car could not be brushed, and in desperation, the convoy had to find a spacious place on the side of the road to stop, and then a group of people sat in the car and watched this rare spectacle in amazement - the eastern half of the sky was sunny, and the western half of the sky was full of dark clouds.This scene of heavy rain under the sun reminded Yang Jing of a particularly famous song once sung by his little brother Qi Qin - "Sun and Rain".The heavy rain came and went quickly, more than ten minutes later, it was as if an invisible hand had turned off an invisible faucet, and the heavy rain that was pouring a moment ago suddenly stopped, and then the dark clouds in the sky also turned into white clouds with different images Bruno said with a smile: "This kind of rain is very common in the tropics, have you seen the classic movie "Forrest Gump"?
”Gege and Yang Jing nodded, and Bruno continued: "There is a set of scenes in the movie, which is about Forrest Gump's time in Vietnam, and the movie uses a narration to introduce all kinds of strange heavy rain in Vietnam, Forrest Gump said that in Vietnam there is rain from top to bottom, rain from side to side, and rain from bottom to top, in fact, that is the real situation, in the tropical rainforest, you can often encounter this kind of unreasonable heavy rain. ”Gege said with a smile: "I remember that set of shots, it's so interesting, I like Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump." ”Yang Jing smiled bitterly and said, "Daughter-in-law, do you think it feels good for you to guard your fiancé and say such things?"
”Gege laughed, "So you're jealous too" Bruno, who was sitting in the passenger seat, and Clarke, who was driving, immediately shut up and didn't speak.When it rained, the convoy had already driven about 30 kilometers away from Dongfang City, so when the convoy continued to move forward for a short time, it saw that houses gradually began to appear on both sides of the road.This is already the outskirts of Oriental City.Bruno had been here before, so he was familiar with it, and after seeing that the young couple no longer teased each other, Bruno began to introduce each other again."
Chief, go any further and enter Dongfang City.Ciudad Oriente is the second largest city in Paraguay, with a population of almost 400,000.Until the sixties, it was nothing more than a small border town close to Brazil.However, in the sixties of the last century, the Paraguayan government designated it as a free trade zone, and the preferential policies allowed a large number of foreign businessmen to flock here, and the city of Orient slowly prospered.Because Dongfang City is a duty-free city, it is now almost a super-large bazaar, where many merchants from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and other countries gather, oh yes, there are many Chinese people here, the Bay Island has the most people, and there are also many merchants from the inland of China.Chief, Sophia, we can go to the largest Qiaotou Market in Dongfang City in a while, and you will definitely be able to meet the Chinese folks there. ”Hearing Bruno say this, Gege was interested, and she asked, "Are there really a lot of Chinese people here?"
”Bruno nodded and said, "That's for sure."
Chinese people are really hardworking, and when I came here more than ten years ago, there were already many Chinese people running supermarkets and restaurants.At that time, seventy percent of the supermarkets near Qiaotou Market were opened by Chinese.Because the goods from Huaxia are not only of good quality, but also cheap, and very popular with the people in South America, the supermarkets opened by Huaxia people here are very, very popular. ”Yang Jing smiled and nodded: "That's right, no matter where we Huaxia people go, we can make a name for ourselves in the local area."
The most industrious, intelligent, and hard-working people in the world are not just talking. ”As he spoke, the convoy had already driven into the suburbs of Dongfang City, and the houses on both sides of the road began to become dense, and looking into the distance, even if it was more than 20 kilometers away, you could see the high-rise buildings in the center of the city.In contrast, there are more high-rise buildings in Orientale than in Asunción.Highway 7, which crosses the city of Vostle, is the main street of Vostle, and after crossing the city of Odieto, the road that crosses the city of Vostel will enter Brazil through the Astamede Bridge over the Paraná River, also known as the "Friendship Bridge".And the bridgehead market that Bruno mentioned before, as the name suggests, is located on the west side of the Friendship Bridge.Although the core area of Qiaotou Market is located in the north of the road at the west end of the Friendship Bridge, in fact, as long as you enter Dongfang City, even if you enter this super-large market, because just after entering Dongfang City, a large number of large vans are parked on both sides of the entire No. 7 Highway.This kind of large truck is called "big car" locally, and if it is in China, it is the kind of large van truck similar to a container truck."
Both sides of Highway 7 are the core area of the entire Dongfang City, and it is also the most prosperous area of Dongfang City."
Bruno pointed to both sides of the way, Yang Jing and Gege looked to both sides, and found more and more high-rise buildings appearing, restaurants, supermarkets, shops everywhere, and even many extremely luxurious casinos with decorations.But it's more about people — the shirtless porters.These porters loaded boxes of heavy goods into the vans, and they were busy like a swarm of worker ants who didn't know how to get tired."
Further ahead is the bridgehead market."
Bruno pointed to the left front and said, because there are too many vehicles here, so the speed of the convoy can only maintain a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, "Qiaotou Market is a bit unremarkable, if the locals didn't tell me that it is Qiaotou Market when I came here before, I don't believe that it is the largest late-night shopping market in all of South America!"
”"Late-night shopping markets?
What does that mean?
Could it be that this market is all traded at night?
”Puzzled, he asked.Bruno smiled and nodded, "That's pretty much what it means."
Don't look at the number of people here now, but it's noon now, and if it's early in the morning, there are several times more people here than there are now, and the streets are full of people, and the cars can't run at all. ”After a pause, Bruno continued: "The bridgehead market was formed both because of its favorable location with Brazil and because of Paraguay's low tariff policy.At the time of its development, Paraguay had low tariffs, while Brazil imposed punitive tariffs on all foreign imports to protect its domestic market.For example, if the market price of a toy is one dollar, Brazil may have to take a tax of 100, while Paraguay only takes a tax of 5, and Brazil also has to pay a tax on the circulation of goods and state taxes in each state.This unbalanced tariff policy has caused many Brazilian businessmen to flock to this border city, they bring goods directly into Paraguay, and then through tax evasion, they will ship cheap goods to Brazil in large quantities and make a profit.And most of this happens at night, which is why this market has become a late-night shopping market. ”"All the goods here are sold at the exchange rate of the day compared to the US dollar, and the price of each item is more than 4~6 times cheaper than in Brazil.So, don't underestimate this market, which has a turnover of up to six billion dollars a year, which is more than five times the revenue of the entire Paraguayan government!
And this market also feeds a large number of locals, because although there is no visa to travel between Paraguay and Brazil, there is a limit to the goods that each Brazilian can carry when they go out of customs, so there are many locals in this market who specialize in bringing goods for people, and these people are called Laria by Brazilians. ”