Seafood products developed by Haibaxian, a seafood brand registered in Sanmen county, Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/taizhou.com.cn]

The popularity of Haibaxian, a seafood brand registered in Sanmen county, Taizhou has been growing in recent years.

The brand, which has more than 100 sales outlets across the country and is valued at over 300 million yuan ($43.56 million), is owned by Wang Ruihong, who made the switch from teaching to selling fresh seafood in 1993.

A year later, Wang expanded his business portfolio by setting up a frozen seafood factory.

In 2003, Wang upgraded his factory before establishing Zhejiang Sante Ecological Fishery Development Co Ltd, which went on to develop a complex that integrates tourism, seafood production and processing. This complex in the Shaliu sub-district has since become a hit, attracting up to 50,000 people every year.

In 2006, Wang and his team took part in a provincial rural culinary contest, during which they snagged four gold medals for their eight dishes that were prepared using Sanmen seafood like blue crabs and white shrimps.

The public awareness of Sanmen seafood rose significantly following the contest.

One year later, Wang registered Haibaxian, which literally means "eight kinds of seafood", in honor of the winning dishes.  In 2010, the sales of seafood gift packages by the brand exceeded 15,000 boxes. Four years later, Wang changed his company's name to Zhejiang Haibaxian Agricultural Development Co Ltd.