China Water: July 21, 2008: Ban on floating restaurants in Suzhou.

This story takes place in Anhui province.

This is a good map to get a view of where Suzhou, Yangcheng Lake, and Shanghai are and how they relate to one another geographically.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=367381







Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200807/20080719/article_367381.htm


Floating feasts banned as hairy crabs flourish
Created: 2008-7-19 0:53:01
Author:Yang Lifei and Xu Fang


LOCALS won't be able to enjoy hairy crabs in floating restaurants in the Yangcheng Lake Town, Jiangsu Province, one of the resorts for hairy crab tasting, this year.

In an effort to protect the water of Yangcheng Lake, the Suzhou environment protection authority has banned floating restaurants, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

The lake is a famous breeding area for the hairy crabs, a popular delicacy, and formal regulations are still under discussion as the ban involves compensation for licensed operators.

Such restaurants have led to severe pollution in Yangcheng Lake, a major source of drinking water for Suzhou, as garbage and other waste is dumped into the water.

"We shut down all floating restaurants within the area before June for fear that greater environmental problems will occur," an unidentified official of the Yangcheng Lake Environment and Sanitation Administrative Station said. "Some licensed operators were offered compensation."

The town government has helped licensed operators open restaurants on land and financed pollution control systems, according to a town official. A former floating restaurant owner said his boat received 50 to 60 diners every day and that business on the water was more profitable.

"When the boat becomes a kitchen, it is inevitable that garbage and polluted water will be dumped into the river directly," the owner said.

Bacheng Town in Kunshan, Jiangsu, another major hairy crab tasting resort for Shanghai people, closed all floating restaurants on the lake in 2005. More than 180 were shut down.

Yangcheng Lake is about a one-hour drive from Shanghai. Its hairy crabs are considered the best in the country. Hairy crabs are popular in the autumn, when they are in season.

In addition to the ban, the water area in which purse nets are set to breed hairy crabs has been reduced sharply to 2,133 hectares this year from a peak 9,467 hectares. This can help improve water quality, and as a result, improve the quality of hairy crabs, according to Yang Weilong, director of the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Association.

Meanwhile, hairy crabs have been bred in a 4,400-hectare water area without nets this year. Hairy crabs can move freely in a much larger area and are believed to grow stronger, Yang said. But it is too early to predict output and price of hairy crabs this year, he said.