Seafood from Southeast Asia is the feature of a large new seafood market in China’s tropical holiday island of Hainan.
The Southeast Asia Seafood City opened with some fanfare recently and even made the pages of the People’s Daily. The normally staid official paper of the Communist Party featured an article praising the “plump shellfish,” “luxurious sea fish,” and “thriving plump shrimp” on sale at the market, which offers shrimp and other seafood from Thailand and Vietnam.
Located just west of Vietnam, the island of Hainan has become a destination for Chinese and Russian sun-seekers. The new 12,000-square-meter market features seafood sales booths as well as restaurants. The opening of the market, run by local Bai Na Bai Cheng Food Street Co Ltd, is well timed given that outbound bookings by Chinese tourists to the U.S. are down 42 percent this year during the ongoing National Day holiday, a weeklong public holiday often termed “Golden Week” due to the celebrants’ propensity for shopping and dining. The drop in U.S. trips comes as trade tensions between China and America continue to sharpen.
