Fujian county impresses tourists with hotel built in aquaculture platform

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.

Fujian county impresses tourists with hotel built in aquaculture platform

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Thursday that it would slash key interest rates by 25 basis points in a bid to wind down the restrictive monetary policy.

Effective from March 12, the interest rates on the deposit facility, the main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility will be decreased to 2.50 percent, 2.65 percent and 2.90 percent respectively, said the central bank in a statement.

The disinflation process is well on track, with headline inflation averaging 2.3 percent in 2025, 1.9 percent in 2026 and 2.0 percent in 2027, the ECB said.

The decision to keep on cutting rates came at a time when the economy in the eurozone is facing increasing uncertainties.

In its latest edition of the staff projections on Thursday, the ECB lowered its forecast for economic growth in the eurozone to 0.9 percent for 2025, 1.2 percent for 2026 and 1.3 percent for 2027.

This marks a downward revision from the ECB's forecast in December last year, which had projected 1.1 percent growth in 2025 and 1.4 percent in 2026, while the 2027 outlook remains unchanged.

The ECB attributed the weaker growth outlook for 2025 and 2026 to declining exports and sluggish investment, citing high trade policy uncertainty and broader economic instability as key factors.

ECB cuts interest rates by 25 basis points