A video clip of a five-story concrete building cruising along Yangtze River in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has made waves on social media last Saturday.
In the viral video shared on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform, a grand structure with a red roof and decorated open balconies was seen traveling along China's famed waterway while getting pushed by two barges.
The five-story dinner cruise was removed from the Yangtze River. /Screenshot from Weibo
After curious netizens had a heated debate over the floating building's real identity, Chongqing's local maritime authorities revealed on Sunday that the massive structure was a dinner cruise under relocation over pollution concerns, local media cqnews.com reported.
The grand five-story dinner cruise shown at night before relocation. /Jiangjin Daily Photo
Savoring freshwater fish on a dinner cruise was once popular among tourists visiting Chongqing, a city famed for its spicy and tongue-numbing delicacies. However, the expanding cruise business had brought huge pressure on local aquatic ecology over the years, with many restaurants failing to meet sanitary and safety standards.
To combat water pollution and protect the segment of Yangtze River running through the city, Chongqing's municipality government started a year-long inspection over local dinner cruises since 2017.
After a series of intensive reforms, 106 out of 138 dinner cruises in Chongqing were either dismantled or relocated to the river banks as of October this year. Restaurants that failed to meet health and safety standards were suspended from business, cqnews.com reported.
The five-story river cruise before relocation. /cqjjnet.com Photo
According to a document released by a district-level pollution control office, the dinner cruise that appeared in the viral video was ordered to be torn down and relocated in July.
(Top image: A few dinner cruises berthing at the river bank in Chongqing Municipality before relocation, June 7, 2017. /VCG Photo)