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 Trump administration's decision to impose "reciprocal tariffs" on all trade partners has sparked panic among investors, sending all three major U.S. stock indices into sharp declines on Thursday, with European stock markets also seeing significant losses, while the U.S. Dollar Index dropped substantially.
As of the close on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,679.39 points to 40,545.93, down 3.98 percent, marking its largest single-day decline since June 2020.
The S and P 500 lost 274.45 points to settle at 5,396.52 points, a 4.84 percent decrease, its biggest drop since June 2020. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1,050.44 points to 16,550.61 points, down 5.97 percent, marking its largest single-day fall since March 2020.
The sell-off was widespread, with key individual stocks also taking a hit. Nike saw a steep 14 percent drop in its share price, while Apple fell by 9 percent. Bank stocks were under heavy pressure, with Western Alliance Bank dropping nearly 16 percent, Citigroup losing about 12 percent, and Bank of America slipping 11 percent.
In the small-cap segment, the Russell 2000 Index saw a notable decline of more than 6 percent. Compared to its peak in November of last year, the index has now dropped over 20 percent, entering a technical bear market.
This marks a stark contrast to the surge seen after the U.S. presidential election, when small-cap stocks were seen as beneficiaries of deregulation, tax cuts, and tariffs.
UBS analysts warned of the potential long-term economic consequences of the tariffs, suggesting that if they persist, inflation could rise sharply, severely impacting the macroeconomy, and potentially leading to significant deterioration in both U.S. and global economic growth and inflation over the next year.
The firm's U.S. economic team estimates that real GDP could decline by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in 2025, with inflation possibly reaching 5 percent.
Meanwhile, European markets followed suit, with all three major stock indices experiencing losses. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed at 8,474.74 points, down 133.74 points, or 1.55 percent, from the previous trading day. The French CAC40 dropped by 259.85 points to 7,598.98 points, a 3.31 percent decrease. In Germany, the DAX Index closed at 21,717.39 points, down 673.45 points, a 3.01 percent drop.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six key currencies, including the euro and the British pound, dropped 1.67 percent to 102.073, while the euro and pound both strengthened as investors sought safer assets amid rising market volatility.
US tariff moves trigger market panic, major indices suffer sharp losses
