The Adora Magic City cruise ship, January 1, 2024. /CFP
The Adora Magic City cruise ship, January 1, 2024. /CFP
China’s first domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, left a port in Shanghai on Monday, embarking on its maiden commercial voyage and 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 and is expected to reach Northeast Asian tourist destinations, including Japan’s Nagasaki and Fukuoka and the Republic of Korea’s Jeju Island, before returning on Sunday. The routes will be further expanded in the future, with more options added, such as Southeast Asian and Belt and Road partner countries.
The Adora Magic City is 323.6 meters in length, has a gross weight of 135,500 tonnes and can accommodate up to 5,246 passengers across a total of 2,125 guest rooms, according to its builder, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (SWS).
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 the SWS.
After eight years of scientific research and five years of design and construction, the ship was delivered in November.
CGTN infographic by Yu Peng
CGTN infographic by Yu Peng
Inside the ship
The atrium of the liner has been decorated in Chinese style, where a welcome party was held for travelers’ boarding.
It boasts dozens of function areas to provide catering, entertainment, leisure and accommodation services for passengers.
There is an art corridor featuring Dunhuang grotto murals set up on the ship, where 16 iconic murals can be seen, such as Buddhist historical sites and decorative patterns grabbing guests’ attention. The high-fidelity reproduction technology makes it possible to present the details of high-definition murals to the passengers onboard, giving an oriental and aesthetic vibe.
“You can take a quiet stroll through the corridor and experience the historical origins of Chinese culture,” Sheng Xing, a passenger, told China Media Group.
A bird’s-eye view of the Adora Magic City cruise ship, January 1, 2024. /CFP
A bird’s-eye view of the Adora Magic City cruise ship, January 1, 2024. /CFP
Third ‘pearl’ claimed
Hailed as the “pearl in the crown” of the shipbuilding industry, cruise vessel manufacturing is among the most intricate and complicated. There are only four countries before China that have the capability to build large cruise ships.
The delivery of Adora Magic City marks that China has picked all three “pearls” in the shipbuilding industry, besides large liquefied natural gas carriers and aircraft carriers.
The ship consists of more than 25 million components, five times that of the C919 aircraft and 13 times that of the Fuxing, or “rejuvenation,” high-speed train.
With high requirements, it took eight years of research and five years of design and construction.
(With input from Xinhua)