QIDONG is sometimes called "the earliest dawn" in China because it is the easternmost city on the nation's east coast. But the real "new dawn" for the city was the opening of the 52-kilometer Chongming-Qidong Bridge across the Yangtze River in December 2011.

The bridge cut the travel time between Shanghai and Qidong to one hour from three. Shanghai people have been flocking to the delta city ever since, many attracted by the famous seafood of the area.

Even though Shanghai people may now just be discovering it, seafood has long been at the heart of Qidong's commerce.

Sitting at the confluence of the Yangtze and the East China and Yellow seas, the city boasts more than 200 kilometers of coastline and 4,400 hectares of fish-rich mudflats. The fruits of the sea are its specialty.

Qidong's Lusi Town is the center of the action. It is one of the four biggest fisheries centers in China, with more than 2,000 aquatic products. Yellow croaker, pomfret, clams, crab, jellyfish and many others are harvested there. Seafood production accounts for one-third of the total aquatic output of Jiangsu Province, where Qidong is located.

Blessed by the sea

"We live by and on the sea," said Gao Haisheng, board chairman of Qidong Lusi Xingyou Aquatic Products. "We have always been blessed by the sea."

Xingyou spreads out over 20,000 square meters, catching, processing, storing, selling and exporting seafood products and catering to the restaurant industry worldwide.

It owns two EU-approved freezer warehouses with a capacity of 10,000 tons of products shipped to Europe.

Gao, 49, is a Qidong native. His name Haisheng means "born at the sea." If he wasn't quite born in it, he was certainly born for it.

In the 1980s, just as China was opening its doors to the world, Gao was a fisherman. Every day at 4am, before the "earliest dawn," he sailed out with his father and brothers to catch fish. After a long and tiring day, the family sold most of its harvest to wholesale bosses, saving a bit to sell in the seaside fish market.

"As a fisherman, you were always in a position of disadvantage," he said.

There were no advanced seafood processing lines at that time. Drying and salting fish was done by hand.

In the early 1990s, when China's economic reforms were transforming the business landscape and providing new opportunities, Gao and a few fellow villagers decided to strike out and become their own bosses.

By 1995, Gao had started the first freezer storehouse, adding a second one two years later. Today there are four, and half of them have been certified by the EU to export seafood products to Europe.

Xingyou has annual sales of 120 million yuan (US$18.97 million), and nearly half the revenue comes from exports. The company sells monkfish, flathead, croaker, hairtail, octopus, shellfish and squid to South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.

Starting from just one small fishing boat, Gao has expanded to 20 vessels and also owns a 200-meter-long harbor.

In 2004, Qidong recorded a record seafood harvest of 100,000 tons. That has given a big boost to the local seafood processing industry.

"It is no longer the era when we process fish with a knife and salt, then throw them into cold storage," said Yu Jinbiao, a local government official.

"We're looking for a way to move our industry up the value chain to yield even greater profits."

Take edible seaweed for example. The seaweed is dried, salted, ground into power and packed into capsules. It is used in a variety of food seasonings. Yearly output value is expected to reach 100 million yuan.

The uses of seafood products extend beyond the dinner table.

Nantong Longsheng Co Ltd extracts peptone, a protein derivative, from shrimp and fish for use in medicinal drugs, healthcare foods and concentrated feedstock. It produces about 150 tons a year.

Shuanglin Food Co extracts chitin, a nitrogen-containing polysaccharide related chemically to cellulose, from crab. The product is used in healthcare products that prevent osteoporosis and promote weight loss.

Processed shrimp and lobster at Nantong Delu Aquatic Products are exported to the US. Lianxing Port, a major clam-breeding base, exports more than 5,000 tons clams to overseas markets each year.

Transportation and trade go hand in hand.

In 2006, China's National Development and Reform Commission approved construction of the Chongming-Qidong Bridge. The span was officially opened in late 2011 and fully opened to the public last December.

Even as China's economic growth slows, the local economy in Qidong has thrived, thanks to the new bridge. From the start, Gao knew an opportunity when he saw it. As construction work on the bridge began, he started expanding his business into food catering and hotel accommodation.

"My intuition told me this bridge would be a golden opportunity," he said.

Faster transport link

Just as Gao expected, the easier, faster transport link is attracting tens of thousands of Shanghai tourists and seafood lovers. His restaurant and hotel are usually fully booked on weekends and during festivals.

Another local resident to benefit from the bridge is 52-year-old Yao Shuitao, who began fishing when he was 16. The seafood business he has built up may not be as big as Gao's, but Yao is very content with the cash flow from the fish shop he operates in the Yinggang Market, the biggest fish-trading center in Lusi.

His six fishing vessels supply him with 3,000 kilograms of aquatic products every month. He said he earns about 800,000 yuan a year, which he described as average income among his peers.

"People like Lusi fish because it's fresh and comes from deep under the waves," Yao said. "Common sense tells you that the lower temperature of the sea produces a better fish taste. So Qidong's fish hauled from the north bank of the Yangtze River is better than fish from Zhejiang Province in the south."

Yao now has three apprentices and plans to open a second fish shop at the market.

"Every weekend, you can see lines of buses from Shanghai parked at the market," he said, adding with a smile, "They like my seafood, but they drive a hard bargain."

Lu Huiming, 40, owner of the Xinghuacun Seafood Restaurant, said the bridge has given him a big business boost.

"I've had a 30 percent increase in customers," he said. "Most are from Shanghai." Lu is now fluent in the Shanghai dialect, which he calls his "working language." This year he opened his second seafood restaurant.