Chapter 476: Giant Object
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The ways that America and China named their cities were different. Based on Chinese practice, the name represented the city, the surroundings, and the suburbs.
But it wasn't the same for the Americans; they liked to coin unique names for districts. For example: Los Angeles, New York, and Phoenix.
Scottsdale wasn't a small city. It was located in the southwest region of Phoenix, with a population of 240,000 and an area of 300 square miles, which was much larger than Flagstaff.
Compared to the city of Phoenix and Tempe, Scottsdale's weather and scenery were slightly better. It was a tourist attraction and an ideal shopping destination.
Li Du had visited the city multiple times but had yet to really tour the place.
In reality, this was a great city; with the desired American style, New York Times once described it as the desert edition of Miami's South Beach. He wasn't American and only understood most cities on the surface level, but to a treasure hunter, that wasn't sufficient.
The auctions and the environment, culture, practice and people of the area where it was held were very integral. This job required a good eye and much knowledge. With a good understanding of the various aspects, this would greatly help in the auction.
This aspect did not worry Li Du, as whenever he headed out to attend an auction, Hans would introduce the conditions of the area for him to analyze. This time, as Hans wasn't around, this job was left to Lu Guan.
Lu Guan was proficient in this matter and without a request from Li Du started introducing Scottsdale quickly.
"I will first introduce the Phoenix district. It is made of up different towns—"
"Towns?" Li Du asked with curiosity.
Lu Guan shrugged. "In reality, it is a city. But the Californians called us, villagers and said that our cities are villages, so I said that to mock the Californians. Ha!"
Li Du was speechless once again.
"You can think of these cities as a big family. Phoenix is unquestionably the father, Scottsdale is the fashionable older sister, Tempe is the university student, Mesa is the older brother that likes to hang out on the outskirts." He gazed at Li Du and asked, "Do you know who the mother is?"
Li Du shook his head to show that he didn't know.
Lu Guan replied, "It's Flagstaff! Ha! Because Phoenix is too warm, the mother couldn't tolerate it and ran up north to Flagstaff—ha!"
Li Du watched him laugh with joy and felt like he had to laugh along with him.
"You understand the cities better now, right? Phoenix has a strong economy and military might, so it is the father. Tempe has a lot of schools, so it is the younger brother in university. Mesa is located in the wilderness, and Scottsdale is very modern."
Li Du nodded his head. "I sort of understand. The city we are headed to, the pillar industry is tourism, right?"
"Yes!" Lu Guan nodded his head with force. "That's right, at this place, for every ten people, four people are employed in a tourism-related job! I watch the news. They attracted over one million tourists this past year."
With the sizeable amount of tourists, the tourism industry in Scottsdale had a lot of potential. New York had the most number of AAA ranked five-star hotels and resorts, but which city was second?
Among others, the delightful weather was one of the main reasons for the thriving tourism industry in Scottsdale. It was warm year-round with an abundance of sunlight; at least 330 days of the year the sun shined brightly.
Under these conditions, every winter, there would be millions upon millions of tourists from Northern America and Canada flocking here for holidays as this was determined an ideal destination during winter.
If Scottsdale's winters were warm, there was no need to explain the summers. It was currently early autumn, and the temperature was high.
With Lu Guan's introductions, Li Du knew that he needed to specially look out for certain items when inspecting the storage units: tourism merchandise, hotel items, and sports items.
The golfing in Scottsdale was renowned in America with hundreds of golf ranges in the city, and this sport belonged to the wealthy. Items that were associated with the wealthy were definitely worth more.
Upon reaching the storage unit company, Lu Guan handed over the blueprints to him and had already identified the storage units that were included in the auction.
A fleet of vehicles was entering the company. Sometimes corporations would lease out a large number of storage units to store their supplies. Li Du inserted himself into the fleet and mixed into the crew entering the company.
The storage unit company was called "Lava." The interiors of the storage units were all made of rocks—which looked very secure—but they were most likely not volcanic rocks. Li Du felt that the company's name and the city's weather were related—it was too hot!
Amongst the eleven storage units that were going to be auctioned, five of them were all in a row: numbers 1 to 5. Li Du released the little bug to enter unit 1; there was a row of neatly-arranged toilet bowls—it seemed like there were at least 40 to 50.
Upon seeing so many toilet bowls, he guessed that the company renting the space was most likely a hotel.
The items in the five storage units were all organized: there were toilet bowls, tables and chairs, lights, various appliances and toiletries, and so on. But all the objects appeared to be either faulty or obsolete.
Li Du decided to leave the place. The five storage units were of no worth to him. To get a storage unit like this, a high price would be required, and there would be no profit margin.
The sixth storage unit was unit 38. Compared to the first five, the items inside were very messy, as though they had just been thrown in.
In the mess, an iron case attracted Li Du's attention. Usually items that were stored inside units like this were worth more, so he instructed the little bug to inspect.
The little bug flew into the case and the first thing it saw was two gigantic steel poles. From the shape, it seemed to be a gun barrel; some double-barrel shotguns looked like this.
But neither the length nor the caliber fit the description of an average gun barrel. The barrel's length was five feet, the thickness was one centimeter, and the caliber five or six centimeters.
Looking at the gun barrel, he took a breath: was this a double barrel cannon?
The next layer in the case revealed its identity: this was a gun barrel and not a cannon barrel. There was a bump stock, a trigger, a scope and other accessories below, and they were huge!
Li Du had never seen such a big gun, and had never heard of this model, but he knew that this gun was valuable. He was definitely going to be competing for it. Lu Guan's information was correct: there was a gun in the storage unit. The information he had gathered would be gathered by other treasure hunters as well.