The city of Hunchun, in Jilin province, has been working on increasing its role as an aquatic products processing center for Northeast Asia, and had a seafood output worth 5.8 billion yuan ($881million) in 2015, or 290-times the amount for 2010.

That's because back then it was still an obscure border town on the Tumen river and had no real share in the aquatic processing business, and mainly imported seafood products from Japan.

Then, thanks to the opening of aviation routes to neighboring countries as well as an improved highway system across the province, people came knocking at the door in hopes of setting up seafood factories.

One of these people, Zhang Zhihao, says he came here simply because he "could make more money than in the wholesale trade", and, he got some good financial backing from the local government and the sea food processing industry has matured so much that there are more than 100 products doing well in overseas markets.

The head of the city's border trade bureau, Che Junping, In commenting on the rapid growth, said confidently, "Hunchun will become an important industrial processing center for the entire region."