The lure of the seafood trade for China’s industrial firms appears to be growing.
The latest example is the opening of a giant new restaurant by a key industrial conglomerate in northwestern China.
With a floor space of 2,000 square meters, the Hai Shi Jie (it uses the English name “Sea World”) seafood restaurant was opened in Pingliang city in Gansu Province by the Gansu Pingliang Tiantai Industry and Trade Group – a firm with roots in cement and infrastructure.
Inside the restaurant, imported lobster and grouper swim live in tanks alongside Russian king crab. Traditionally one of China’s poorer regions, Gansu has been the focus of government infrastructure spending, which has driven economic growth and demand for services like catering and education.
The state-owned Tiantai group has interests in infrastructure building, real estate, and trade as well as manufacturing. The investors behind the Hai Shi Jie restaurant plan other openings across the region as part of a move into the services economy, according to Tiantai Group Chairman Yuan Jianjun, who officiated at the opening of the new restaurant.
Some 68 percent of China's urban-dwellers fit into the “middle class” bracket, classified as having household income of between USD 8,000 and 30,000 (EUR 7,000 and 26,300) a year, according to OC&C Strategy, a Shanghai-based consultancy focused on China’s consumer goods sector.
Photo courtesy of New Media Online News (Zhou Yi)
