Adora Magic City sails on maiden trip
CHINA’S first domestically built cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, set sail on its maiden commercial voyage from Shanghai yesterday, opening a new chapter for the country’s shipbuilding and cruise industries.
Carrying more than 3,000 passengers, the ship set off from the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal.
It is expected to reach Northeast Asian tourist destinations, including Japan and South Korea, before returning on Sunday.
Equipped with a mahjong lounge and hotpot restaurant, the luxury vessel is aimed squarely at China’s expanding middle class and their appetite for international travel.
The Adora Magic City is 323.6 meters in length, has a gross weight of 135,500 tons and can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers across a total of 2,125 guest rooms, according to its builder, China State Shipbuilding Corp’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co.
It has 16 floors and a total of 40,000 square meters of public living and recreational space.
The building of large cruise ships like the Adora Magic City marked a leap in China’s overall shipbuilding capacity, said Chen Gang, general manager of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co.
After eight years of scientific research and five years of design and construction, the ship was delivered in November.
State media have hailed the 16-deck behemoth as a “major milestone for the country’s shipbuilding industry” and a “crown jewel.”
Many of Adora Magic City’s components were provided by international suppliers.
But in the future, “China has the opportunity to build its own supply chain,” Marco Scopaz, Lloyd’s Register’s on-site project manager, said in an article on Lloyd’s website.
The Adora Magic City “marks the beginning of the country’s inevitable and rapid development in cruise design and construction,” he added.
The country’s first homegrown passenger jet, the
C919, also made its debut outside China’s mainland last month, when it flew to Hong Kong.
(Agencies)