Wan Yongcai, General Manager of China Travel Service Head Office (Dalian) Co. Ltd., told Beijing Review on July 31 that after the explosion accident, five to six tourist groups from Beijing were canceled, which accounted for less than 1 percent of the total number of tourist groups. But at the same time, tourist groups from other parts of northeast China and inland areas of the country were increasing, hence the total number did not drop.

Seafood

SEAFOOD, PLEASE: Customers select seafood at the Dalian Changxing Aquatic Products Market on July 31. Officials say the oil spill has not affected the quality of aquatic products in Dalian (WANG JUN)

Dalian local, Yang Xianna, said she worried the seafood could be polluted, but her daughter loves shrimp, so she bought some on July 29. "There is no smell of oil, and the prices are not rising," she told Beijing Review.

At the seafood buffet restaurant at the Prince Hotel, Sui Penghua and her family, from Yichun of Heilongjiang Province, were putting seafood into the hotpot in front of them on July 30. Last year, Sui and her husband had a seafood buffet at the same restaurant. "Since we are in Dalian, we should try some seafood," Sui told Beijing Review. Though having some worries about the pollution, she believes the supervision department will not allow the sale of seafood that could hurt the public's health.

Sun Yueying, who operates a stall at Dalian Changxing Aquatic Products Market, also heard some worries about seafood pollution from her customers. She told Beijing Review that, after the explosion, the retail volume of her stall dropped about 20 percent, but retail only accounts for half of her total sales volume.

Liu Dan sells fresh seafood at Dalian Aquatic Products Wholesale Market, Dalian's largest and China's 11th largest aquatic products market. She said on July 30 that sales at her stall were not affected by the oil spill, because her suppliers are not in the affected area.

SEAFOOD SAFETY GUARD: Staff of the check station of Dalian Aquatic Products Wholesale Market test seafood samples on July 30 to ensure the products sold in the market are safe (WANG JUN)

Li Qiang, Duty Manager of the wholesale market, said that since Dalian is still in the no-fishing season, which lasts from June 1 to September 1, fish sold are frozen and fresh seafood is cultivated from the areas unaffected by the oil spill and even from other cities. Hence sales at the market have not been affected by the oil spill accident.

Lucky time

Sun Zhibin owns a seedling farm in Chengzi Village for seeds of shellfish and sea cucumbers. The village is to the east of oil-affected Jinshitan. The seawater used for seedling should be absolutely pollution-free. Sun uses seawater from the area of his village and by now, he has found no abnormal deaths of his seeds. "My seedling farm has not been affected by the oil spill for the moment, and it is hard to estimate the harm now," he told Beijing Review on July 29.