MORE than 100 stall owners at Xixiang seafood market in Bao an District suspended their sales and protested in the market over the demolition of the market Sunday.
The owners hoped the market management department would offer new stalls in nearby areas for them after the seafood market was demolished, but the department said it would be very difficult to find suitable places for them, yesterday s Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.
We are trying to help them set up new stalls in other markets, but it may not be close to Xixiang market. Or they can choose to leave after receiving compensation for demolition, an unidentified market official said.
Xixiang seafood market is one of the biggest farm produce markets in Xixiang Subdistrict. It has three areas, including grocery store area, meat and vegetable market and seafood market. Because of the environmental improvement project along Xixiang River which started last year, the seafood market had to be demolished according to the project plan.
The management department planned to move the seafood stalls to a square between the market building and the meat and vegetable market, however, this plan was disapproved by residents living in the market building.
Because of their disapproval, we had no choice but to compensate the stall owners and ask them to leave as we could not find any other places for them to continue operation, the official said.
I have been doing business here for more than 30 years and my whole family live on it. If they asked me to leave, it would be a disaster for my family. Most stall owners here are like me, so it will be a huge problem for us if they don t arrange a new place nearby for our business, a woman surnamed Li who sold fish in the market said.
As the only seafood market in the neighboring area, the number of buyers at Xixiang Market will decrease sharply if the seafood market was moved out of the area, so many meat and vegetable stall owners also joined in the protest for fear of sales decrease in the future.
I think it is a great thing to improve the environment along Xixiang River, but if the seafood market was gone, it would be very inconvenient for us to buy fish and other seafood, an unidentified resident told the newspaper. (Wang Yuanyuan)
