A sprawling market floor in Guangzhou was once a prime location for shark fin, one of China's most expensive delicacies. But now it lies deserted, thanks to a ban from official banqueting tables and a celebrity-driven advertising campaign.

One stallholder at the Shanhaicheng center ate his lunch quietly at a desk, flanked by four glum-looking colleagues and giant white sacks overflowing with thousands of dollars' worth of unsold gray stock.

A woman at the next stall fiddled with her mobile phone, plastic bags of dried yellow fins untouched on the shelves behind her.