The extent of China’s seafood market is apparent in the recent opening in Urumqi, China’s most westerly metropolis, of a large, flashy themed restaurant, OS Seafood Lab.
The most inland city on Earth, sprawling Urumqi – a five-hour flight from the country’s coast – is better known for its lamb and naan bread, but Boston lobster and Argentine shrimp are on the menu at the restaurant which is located at YOHO Plaza, the mall on Nanhu Dong Lu, a street in the center of the city, which sits just north of the Taklamakan Desert.
The restaurant’s name is a play on “Our Seafood,” but can also mean “Outer Space,” according to staff. Decorated like a science lab in a space ship, the restaurant opened with flashy cars, models and lots of alcohol – this in a region that’s home to the Uighur (Turkic Muslims) ethnic group that has been outnumbered in recent years by government-encouraged mass migrations of Han Chinese. Chinese government investment and a booming local oil industry have made Urumqi one of the fastest-growing municipal economies in China.
Reached by SeafoodSource, staff at the restaurant reported a brisk trade. Urumqi has positioned itself as a trading hub for central Asia and the Caucus region, with daily flights to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran popular with traders seeking to buy Chinese consumer goods, which are in turn trucked westwards. Seafood is flown in from Fuzhou, Shanghai and other Chinese cities connected by air transport to Urumqi airport.
