An aquaculture platform, with a hotel built in it, in east China's Lianjiang County, Fujian Province, has impressed tourists with comfortable accommodation conditions and fresh yellow croakers farmed just on the platform.
Mintou No. 1 Aquaculture Platform, the latest tourism attraction of Lianjiang County, has a dining hall with over 100 seats, 25 rooms, and many other amenities for relaxation.
Many visitors have spent nights onboard and are truly impressed by its remarkable stability.
They can also taste freshly caught yellow croakers, which are exactly farmed on this platform.
"I tasted the yellow croaker this morning, and it tasted indeed fresher and more flavorful compared with others I have tried," said Xie Fei, a tourist.
This floating hotel features an advanced aquaculture system, which combines sonar, optical, video technologies and data analysis to manage deep-sea farming in an intelligent way.
The annual output of large yellow croakers of the platform is worth nearly 140 million dollars. Rapid delivery services by drone is also available, which could deliver fish to the provincial capital of Fuzhou, 70 kilometers away, within 45 minutes, ensuring the freshness of the fish.
"The integration of fishing and tourism is quite unique. The business models we are familiar with is either completely for leisure, like cruise ship, or completely for fishing, like aquaculture platform," said Xu Huang, general manager of Mintou No. 1 Aquaculture Platform.
Since July of last year, the platform has hosted over 5,000 visitors, added Xu.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources, the country's national marine tourism industry generated a value added of over 200 billion dollars in 2023, increasing 10 percent year over year.