Chinese fisheries conglomerate Wanzefeng Fishery Co. has inaugurated a giant theme park which includes a giant floating ship of seafood restaurants in its home base of Rizhao on China’s east coast.
Company chairperson Li Hong inaugurated the giant amusement park, which is being promoted as a “Silk Road Economic Belt project” in tune with the central government One Belt, One Road blueprint. Li spoke at a showy launch party featuring media from across the country, a signal of Wanzefeng’s intent to make the site a national tourist attraction.
Aside from eating seafood on a giant container ship (with various restaurants aboard) visitors can rent meeting rooms, hire yachts and even “free captive animals” [in this case aquatic animals, fish] on the sea – a favorite ploy of Chinese parks where live chickens are often fed into tiger enclosures. Wanzefeng has also added an adjacent park and a seafood retail park to the project.
Wanzefeng made national headlines earlier this year when it partnered with China Ocean University and Wuchuan Heavy Industry to launch the “Shen Lan No. 1,” a giant offshore aquaculture platform modeled on a similar system made for Norwegian firm SalMar.
Fishing firms have sought to tap into downstream Chinese consumer spending through the launch of branded seafood products and restaurants.
