Crab feasts, ball games boost lure of coastal island

Putuo district, located in the prefecture-level city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, is world renowned as being home to Mount Putuo, which sits among Zhoushan archipelago's 1,390 islands.

According to Zhejiang provincial department of foreign affairs, Putuo island has been renowned as the shrine of Guanyin (Bodhisattva in Buddhism) since ancient times, enjoying the reputation of being a "Buddhist world amidst sea and sky".

However, when Philippine sea captain Rodriguez Jr came to work at Zhoushan IMC Shipyard — a Sino-foreign ship repair and engineering yard — he found the district is also fast developing its other feature industries after netting a regional GDP of 51.71 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) last year.

According to the city's information office, Zhoushan is making efforts to develop green technologies to bolster its ship maintenance industry.

Last year, its ship building industry's output value surpassed 17 billion yuan.

With a coastline stretching for nearly 1,000 kilometers and being home to more than 740 islands, Putuo district is located in the southeast of Zhoushan archipelago. In 2025, its fishery output reached 20.07 billion yuan.

Local resident Li Wen said at present, Putuo has formed an industrial scale with an annual ship repair capacity of 100 million deadweight tons. The repair of foreign ships accounts for about a quarter of the country's total.

"Huge ships from all over the world reach here for maintenance, replenishment and rest, opening a window for Putuo to better exhibit itself to the outside world," Li said.

The district has in recent years explored excellent new formats such as island tourism and sporting events, aiming to build a real bridge for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, Li said.

On the evening of Sept 12, as the Putuo Division of 2026 Zhejiang City Basketball League (Zhejiang BA) provincial competition kicked off at Putuo Gymnasium, four foreign seafarers from IMC Shipyard (Zhoushan) were invited to experience the district's special crab feast, folk performances and basketball matches.

At the banquet scene, the sailors stopped to taste authentic snacks such as special fish fillets and glutinous rice cakes, and participated in the autumn crab feast.

"Tonight's activities are really wonderful, and I am deeply impressed by the snacks here. We all enjoyed watching the show while eating crabs," Rodriguez Jr said.

The atmosphere appealed to the foreign sailors, who took the chance to learn some dance moves and danced with the performers, making the event a lively cultural exchange.

June Tolentino, a Filipino seafarer, recorded the moments with his mobile phone, and said: "What impressed me most was the robot performance and dragon dance, and the crabs were really fresh. I will definitely recommend Putuo to my friends."

After the crab feast, the group went to Putuo Gymnasium to watch the Zhejiang BA event, where this year's championship brought together 28 teams as the opening match of the Putuo Division.

"This made me very excited," Rodriguez Jr said while immersing himself in the game.

"This is my first time to watch a ball game here. It's really wonderful!"

Li added that Putuo has continuously relied on its characteristic resources to build a foreign exchange platform with all kinds of mass activities, so that foreign friends can get to know and understand Putuo in an immersive way.

hanjingyan@chinadaily.com.cn